ICD-9 Code List in XML, CSV, or Database format

Question

I am looking for a complete list of ICD-9 Codes (Medical Codes) for Diseases and Procedures in a format that can be imported into a database and referenced programmatically. My question is basically exactly the same as http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1520257/looking-for-resources-for-icd-9-codes, but the original poster neglected to mention where exactly he "got ahold of" his complete list.

Google is definitely not my friend here as I have spent many hours googling the problem and have found many rich text type lists (such as the CDC) or websites where I can drill down to the complete list interactively, but I cannot find where to get the list that would populate these websites and can be parsed into a Database. I believe the files here ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/Publications/ICD9-CM/2009/ have what I am looking for but the files are rich text format and contain a lot of garbage and formatting that would be difficult to remove accurately.

I know this has to have been done by others and I am trying to avoid duplicating other peoples effort but I just cannot find an xml/CSV/Excel list.

Answer 1

After removing the RTF it wasn't too hard to parse the file and turn it into a CSV. My resulting parsed files containing all 2009 ICD-9 codes for Diseases and Procedures are here: http://www.jacotay.com/files/Disease_and_ProcedureCodes_Parsed.zip My parser that I wrote is here: http://www.jacotay.com/files/RTFApp.zip Basically it is a two step process - take the files from the CDC FTP site, and remove the RTF from them, then select the RTF-free files and parse them into the CSV files. The code here is pretty rough because I only needed to get the results out once.

Here is the code for the parsing app in case the external links go down (back end to a form that lets you select a filename and click the buttons to make it go)

Public Class Form1

Private Sub btnBrowse_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnBrowse.Click
    Dim p As New OpenFileDialog With {.CheckFileExists = True, .Multiselect = False}
    Dim pResult = p.ShowDialog()
    If pResult = Windows.Forms.DialogResult.Cancel OrElse pResult = Windows.Forms.DialogResult.Abort Then
        Exit Sub
    End If
    txtFileName.Text = p.FileName
End Sub

Private Sub btnGo_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnGo.Click
    Dim pFile = New IO.FileInfo(txtFileName.Text)
    Dim FileText = IO.File.ReadAllText(pFile.FullName)
    FileText = RemoveRTF(FileText)
    IO.File.WriteAllText(Replace(pFile.FullName, pFile.Extension, "_fixed" & pFile.Extension), FileText)

End Sub


Function RemoveRTF(ByVal rtfText As String)
    Dim rtBox As System.Windows.Forms.RichTextBox = New System.Windows.Forms.RichTextBox

    '// Get the contents of the RTF file. Note that when it is
    '// stored in the string, it is encoded as UTF-16.
    rtBox.Rtf = rtfText
    Dim plainText = rtBox.Text

    Return plainText
End Function


Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
    Dim pFile = New IO.FileInfo(txtFileName.Text)
    Dim FileText = IO.File.ReadAllText(pFile.FullName)
    Dim DestFileLine As String = ""
    Dim DestFileText As New System.Text.StringBuilder

    'Need to parse at lines with numbers, lines with all caps are thrown away until next number
    FileText = Strings.Replace(FileText, vbCr, "")
    Dim pFileLines = FileText.Split(vbLf)
    Dim CurCode As String = ""
    For Each pLine In pFileLines
        If pLine.Length = 0 Then
            Continue For
        End If
        pLine = pLine.Replace(ChrW(9), " ")
        pLine = pLine.Trim

        Dim NonCodeLine As Boolean = False
        If IsNumeric(pLine.Substring(0, 1)) OrElse (pLine.Length > 3 AndAlso (pLine.Substring(0, 1) = "E" OrElse pLine.Substring(0, 1) = "V") AndAlso IsNumeric(pLine.Substring(1, 1))) Then
            Dim SpacePos As Int32
            SpacePos = InStr(pLine, " ")
            Dim NewCode As String
            NewCode = ""
            If SpacePos >= 3 Then
                NewCode = Strings.Left(pLine, SpacePos - 1)
            End If

            If SpacePos < 3 OrElse Strings.Mid(pLine, SpacePos - 1, 1) = "." OrElse InStr(NewCode, "-") > 0 Then
                NonCodeLine = True
            Else
                If CurCode <> "" Then
                    DestFileLine = Strings.Replace(DestFileLine, ",", "&#44;")
                    DestFileLine = Strings.Replace(DestFileLine, """", "&quot;").Trim
                    DestFileText.AppendLine(CurCode & ",""" & DestFileLine & """")
                    CurCode = ""
                    DestFileLine = ""
                End If

                CurCode = NewCode
                DestFileLine = Strings.Mid(pLine, SpacePos + 1)
            End If
        Else
            NonCodeLine = True
        End If


        If NonCodeLine = True AndAlso CurCode <> "" Then 'If we are not on a code keep going, otherwise check it
            Dim pReg As New System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex("[a-z]")
            Dim pRegCaps As New System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex("[A-Z]")
            If pReg.IsMatch(pLine) OrElse pLine.Length <= 5 OrElse pRegCaps.IsMatch(pLine) = False OrElse (Strings.Left(pLine, 3) = "NOS" OrElse Strings.Left(pLine, 2) = "IQ") Then
                DestFileLine &= " " & pLine
            Else 'Is all caps word
                DestFileLine = Strings.Replace(DestFileLine, ",", "&#44;")
                DestFileLine = Strings.Replace(DestFileLine, """", "&quot;").Trim
                DestFileText.AppendLine(CurCode & ",""" & DestFileLine & """")
                CurCode = ""
                DestFileLine = ""
            End If
        End If
    Next

    If CurCode <> "" Then
        DestFileLine = Strings.Replace(DestFileLine, ",", "&#44;")
        DestFileLine = Strings.Replace(DestFileLine, """", "&quot;").Trim
        DestFileText.AppendLine(CurCode & ",""" & DestFileLine & """")
        CurCode = ""
        DestFileLine = ""
    End If

    IO.File.WriteAllText(Replace(pFile.FullName, pFile.Extension, "_parsed" & pFile.Extension), DestFileText.ToString)
End Sub

End Class