Moving Towards the Regulatory Classification of Aging as a Disease
This article originally appeared on Fight Aging!
The research and advocacy community is very interested in having the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases, which is used to define disease by national regulatory agencies, officially classify aging as a medical condition. This would allow for more large-scale funding from institutions, as well as clinical trials that target the mechanisms of ageing. The belief is that the increased funding and activity could then be passed down to the research and development chain to speed up progress. This is a fair argument, but I would suggest that more effort be put into finding ways to bypass the current system than to change it directly. The threat of competition has been shown to be more effective in forcing change than petitions.
The lobbyists are making more progress in classifying aging a disease. World Health Organization (WHO), has added the extension code \”Ageing Related\” (XT9T), to the most recent version of the International Classification of Diseases. The ICD-10 was first released in 1983. It has now been replaced by ICD-11. This new version is expected to continue serving the medical community as long as its predecessor.
Source:
http://churchandstate.org.uk/2019/06/inching-towards-the-regulatory-classification-of-aging-as-a-disease/
