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Is there an official database of medical illnesses/conditions? Is it publicly available?

When a patient's information is entered in the medical record software, does the software cross-reference the patient's data (age, gender, symptoms) with known illnesses/conditions?

If not, why not? It seems like WebMD was trying to be this sort of database, but it relies on self-assessment. I feel like a feedback loop from medical professionals (to constantly update/improve the database's matching ability) could fine-tune the definitions of certain conditions (based on measurable data points), and improve diagnosis accuracy.

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    Love the question. I have participated a little in the Human Dx Project that is doing the latter (fine tuning), and there's Watson. AI-assisted diagnosing is, I think, on the not too distant frontier. Inputting symptoms does exist as well. I wish there was ONE central location though.
    – DoctorWhom
    Aug 21, 2017 at 4:42
  • I really appreciate this question. The DSM (and similar manuals elsewhere in the world) exist to codify a set of official diagnoses and there have been a few high-profile cases of diagnoses being removed under allegations of political pressure. Do these manuals exist for other branches of medicine? For example, is there a handbook of rheumatology that lists every official rheumatology diagnosis? "No, 'Idiopathic Arthritis with Smith's Taxonomic Pathology' is not a valid diagnosis! It was removed from the Diagnostic Manual of Rheumatology (DMR) by the Rheumatology Council in 2019! Bad doctor!"
    – Robert Columbia
    Dec 11, 2021 at 17:18

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Not sure if this is what you are after but there is the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD), a medical classification list by the World Health Organization (WHO). The current one is ICD-10 http://www.who.int/classifications/icd/icdonlineversions/en/

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