ICF Implementation

The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) aims to describe the effects an illness or a disability can have on the life of an individual. In the ICF context, functioning and disability are understood as a complex, interactive and dynamic state consisting of interaction between an individual’s health and features of the person and of the overall context in which the person lives.

ICF is part of the WHO Family of International Classifications. It was published by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2001, and updated in 2011–2015.
WHO Family of International Classifications (WHO)

THL published the Finnish version of ICF in 2004, and a short version of it in 2015.

THL's activities and collaboration in the ICF implementation in Finland

THL promotes the implementation of ICF in Finland through:

keeping the ICF up-to-date by translating into Finnish the ICF updates approved by WHO, and through releasing the updated ICF electronically for the use of IT system suppliers (THL - ICF Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, including updates in 2011-2018 (THL, Coding service; in Finnish)
organising the linking of functioning measures into the ICF for purposes of the TOIMIA Database
co-ordinating an ICF learning network in Innovillage since 2013. The aim is to build a multisectorial network that learns, develops, implements and researches means to implement ICF nationally in clinical practice
organising a network of ICF trainers who organise ICF trainings based on mutually agreed materials and learning modules
preparing data modelling for the structured recording of functioning data so as to enable the structured recording of functioning data and the linking of the data into ICF.

THL's activities and collaboration in the ICF implementation internationally

THL is a member of the International mICF Partnership that aims to develop mobile ICanFunction solution. It is a person-centered user-friendly solution to help people to describe their lived experience of service needs.
International mICF Partnership
managing the Social Insurance Institution (Kela) funded project to develop a first minimum viable product of the person-centred mobile ICF-based tool (mICF) for the assessment of functioning (proof-of-concept) together with the International mICF Partnership
mICF (Research and development)
THL is a member of the WHO Family of International Classifications Nordic Collaboration Centre and involved in the ICF update and development in the Functioning and Disability Reference Group.