ICD-10-AM/ACHI/ACS resources
Date published: 29 May 2025
The resources provided on this page are to assist clinical coders and other users of ICD-10-AM/ACHI/ACS. Information may be updated at any time to maintain currency.
Terminology table
Clinicians use different terms to communicate cause and effect relationships in health care records. The terms are often subjective and contextual and cannot be assumed to always mean the same thing. It is not restricted to the prepositions of ‘due to’ or ‘secondary to’ which are often used in classification terminology to represent the concept of cause and effect.
The following table has been developed as a guide to assist clinical coders where the classification does not provide a causative link between a condition and an intervention. Clinical coders must refer to the ICD-10-AM Conventions/Special terminology in the first instance.
The term ‘during’ can be used in various contexts to infer that an event occurred within a specific time period or activity.
Terms such as ‘associated with’, ‘related’, ‘post’ or words with a ‘post’ prefix are ambiguous and depending on the context may infer a relationship of time, sequence, coexistence or cause and effect.
Table 1: Terms or expressions inferring relationship (note this list is not exhaustive)
| A. Terms indicating cause and effect | B. Terms indicating other (such as time, sequence or concurrence) or unspecified relationships |
|---|---|
| as a consequence of (from) | after |
| as a result of | arising during (in) |
| attributed to | associated with |
| because of | accompanied by |
| bring, bringing about | background of |
| cause of, caused by (from) | consistent with |
| complication of (from) (by), complicating | contributing factor (to), contributed by (to) |
| due to | during |
| from | following, followed |
| induced by (from) | in context of |
| leading to | incidental to |
| owing to | occurred after (in) (during) |
| precipitated by, precipitating | post, or words with a ‘post’ prefix (postembryonic) |
| resulting in (from), resultant, resulted in | previous (to) |
| secondary to (from) (by) | prior (to) |
| stem, stemming from | related to |
Education
Education for new editions of ICD-10-AM/ACHI/ACS and the Australian Refined Diagnosis Related Groups (AR-DRGs) is available for users on IHACPA Learn.
Interactive modules are self-paced and include knowledge checks and end-of-module quizzes. Users can track their learning progress and download a certificate of completion.
New users must register to access IHACPA Learn. Please note: your IHACPA Learn login details may be different from your Australian Classification Exchange (ACE) login details.
A list of commonly asked questions is available in the Help menu on IHACPA Learn.
Key links
Last updated: 2 September 2025