Symposium on the Future of Disease Classification in the United States

Session materials and summaries are available.

2026 Symposium

Available materials:

Symposium co-chairs Christopher Chute and Patrick Romano joined Sue Bowman on AHIMA's HI-Five Policy Podcast in May 2026 to discuss the symposium and what came out of the sessions. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube.

Agenda

March 23, 2026 (Eastern Time)

  • Sponsored by Johns Hopkins University

  • Speaker:

    • Patrick S. Romano, University of California, Davis, School of Medicine

  • The Future of Large-Scale Clinical Data for Real-World Analytics: From fully-specified diagnostic sentences to computable data

    Over the past decade, the emergence of large-scale electronic medical records has enabled an unprecedented opportunity for longitudinal analysis of clinical events from real-world data. However, historical mechanisms for encoding such data into classifications impoverishes detailed analytics. New strategies for the systematic capture of clinical concepts, findings, diagnoses, and outcomes promise to address these historical shortcomings, enabling comprehensive clinical characterization that can support high-throughput data science.

    Keynote Speaker

    • Christopher G. Chute, Johns Hopkins University

  • Examining what current clinical classifications can and cannot do with discussion of emergent classification and terminology solutions for more complete capture of clinical information.

    Speakers:

    • Susan H. Fenton, McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics at UTHealth Houston

    • June Bronnert, Intelligent Medical Objects (IMO)

    • Sue Bowman, American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA)

    • Vickie M. Mays, University of California, Los Angeles

  • Detailed Rendering of Disease Classification: Opportunities to align and integrate precision-medicine based classifications encoded in biomedical ontologies and real-world data within the framework of the ICD

    Speakers:

    • Melissa Haendel, UNC School of Medicine, Department of Genetics

    • Ada Hamosh, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, McKusick-Nathans Department of Genetic Medicine

    • Peter Fish, Mendelian

    • Bradford Powell, UNC School of Medicine, Department of Genetics

  • Sponsored by AHIMA (American Health Information Management Association)

  • The Foundation of the ICD-11: Development, enrichment, maintenance and curation

    Chair: Geoffrey M. Reed, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

    Speakers:

    • James T. Case, SNOMED International

    • Christopher G. Chute, Johns Hopkins University

    • Michael B. First, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

  • Overviewing the opportunities, methodologies, and feasibility, of AI assisted coding of clinical records into post-coordinated expressions with classifications enriched with clinical terminology detail.

    Moderator: Christopher G. Chute, Johns Hopkins University

    Speakers:

    • Ahmed Hassoon, Johns Hopkins University

    • Paul Nagy, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

    • Zheyu Wang, Johns Hopkins University

    • Tanner Zhang, Johns Hopkins University

  • Speakers:

    • Patrick S. Romano, University of California, Davis, School of Medicine

  • Sponsored by AHIMA (American Health Information Management Association)

March 24, 2026 (Eastern Time)

  • Sponsored by AHIMA (American Health Information Management Association)

  • Speaker:

    • Christopher G. Chute, Johns Hopkins University

  • In this session, the opportunities, challenges, and issues to be considered in order for U.S. policymakers to decide if a national linearization of ICD-11 should be developed will be discussed.

    Moderator: Sue Bowman, American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA)

    Panelists:

    • June Bronnert, Intelligent Medical Objects (IMO)

    • Denene Harper, American Hospital Association (AHA)

  • In this session, provider organizations and EHR vendors will discuss the needs of future classification systems and the opportunities and challenges to the potential transition to ICD-11, such as transition costs, education and training requirements, technology advancements, and its ability to better serve patients, clinicians, and population health.

    Moderator: Valerie Watzlaf, University of Pittsburgh

    Panelists:

    • Michelle Badore, Solventum

    • Amol Bhalla, Intelligent Medical Objects (IMO)

    • Veena Dawar, Oracle Health

    • David Hoyt, Epic

    • Jackie King, ArchPro Coding and Consulting

    • Tammy Love, American Hospital Association (AHA)

  • From reactors to roadmap.

    Speakers:

    • Patrick S. Romano, University of California, Davis, School of Medicine

    • Charles Hobson, HCA Florida Lake City Hospital

    • Geoffrey M. Reed, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

    • Patricia Saleeby, Bradley University

  • Speakers:

    • Sue Bowman, AHIMA

    • Valerie Watzlaf, University of Pittsburgh

  • Sponsored by Johns Hopkins University

Speaker List

2026 Symposium Planning Committee

Prof. Chris G. Chute, Co-Chair -Johns Hopkins University

Prof. Patrick S. Romano, Co-Chair - University of California, Davis

Sue Bowman - American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA)

Dr. Bruce Cuthbert - formerly Research Domain Criteria (RDoC), National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Charles W. Foldyna-Hawley - National Association of Health Data Organizations (NAHDO)

Denise Love - formerly NAHDO

Prof. Vickie M. Mays - UCLA Departments of Psychology and Health Policy & Management

Prof. Geoffrey M. Reed - Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

Prof. Valerie J.M. Watzlaf - University of Pittsburgh