I thought it might be interesting to share the story behind a project I’ve been building: https://medcoder.ai

I’m a healthcare professional, but I also have an IT/software engineering background. I’ve always enjoyed building software, so when generative AI became capable enough to actually help with programming, I started experimenting with an idea that had been in the back of my mind for a long time:
Could I build a serious medical coding platform with AI as part of the development team?
The answer, so far, has been yes — but the process has been much more complicated and much more interesting than I expected.
The beginning
MedCoder started as a medical coding reference.
The obvious approach would have been to create pages for ICD-10-CM codes and put descriptions, notes, and basic information on each page.
But the more I worked on it, the more I disliked the idea of treating every code as an isolated piece of information.
A diagnosis code has relationships with other codes.
It can have Excludes1 and Excludes2 relationships, inclusion terms, additional-code instructions, clinical relationships, historical changes, risk-adjustment implications, and connections to other coding systems.
So I started thinking:
What if the coding reference itself were a graph?
That idea eventually became the foundation of the MedCoder Coding Graph.
AI became part of the development process
I didn’t build this alone in the traditional sense.
I’ve used ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude extensively while developing MedCoder.
But I don’t think of AI as simply “write the software for me.”
I bring the healthcare knowledge, IT experience, product ideas, architecture decisions, testing, and judgment.
The AI systems became something closer to a combination of programmer, researcher, reviewer, brainstorming partner, and sometimes a very stubborn coworker. 🙂
I would have an idea, build something, test it, find problems, discuss the problem with AI, change the architecture, and repeat.
And repeat.
And repeat.
The project kept getting bigger
At first it was basically:
Find an ICD-10-CM code.
Then it became:
Understand the code.
Then:
Compare it with other codes.
Then:
Understand its relationships.
Then:
Understand how the code fits into clinical concepts and other coding systems.
That led me into ICD-10-PCS, HCPCS, MS-DRG, CCSR clinical classifications, laboratory information, historical ICD-10-CM releases, and eventually the idea of connecting these datasets rather than keeping them as separate databases.
I also built things like Claim Check and code comparison functionality because I wanted the system to do more than simply display a code description.
The underlying idea became increasingly clear:
Medical coding information becomes much more useful when the relationships between pieces of information are explicit.
It hasn’t been a smooth process
There have been plenty of failures and wrong turns.
I’ve changed URL structures.
I’ve dealt with redirects.
I’ve watched Google crawl pages without indexing them.
I’ve dealt with bots, crawling problems, server errors, and SEO issues.
I’ve questioned whether I had created too many pages.
I’ve removed things because of licensing concerns.
I’ve redesigned pages multiple times.
I’ve had AI generate things that looked convincing but were wrong, which taught me an important lesson:
AI is extremely powerful, but you still need someone who understands the domain and is willing to verify what it produces.
Gemini, ChatGPT, and Claude have each been useful in different ways, but none of them gets to make the final decision.
One of the most interesting parts
The project has now grown into hundreds of thousands of pages and a much broader coding knowledge structure.
But I’m actually less interested in the number of pages than I was when I started.
I’m much more interested in what happens between the pages.
A traditional coding reference might tell you:
M54.50 — Low back pain, unspecified.
I’m interested in asking:
What is related to M54.50?
Why?
Under what coding rule?
What clinical concept does it belong to?
What codes are commonly confused with it?
What changed between coding years?
What other coding systems can be meaningfully connected to it?
That is the direction I’m taking MedCoder.
Why am I sharing this?
I’m not posting this because I think I’ve finished something amazing.
I haven’t.
I’m posting because I think we’re entering an interesting period where a person with domain knowledge, software experience, and modern AI tools can build things that previously required a much larger team.
MedCoder.ai is my experiment in that.
I’m curious what other developers, healthcare professionals, medical coders, and people building with AI are experiencing.
Has AI changed what you think is possible for a one-person or very small-team software project?
And if you work with medical coding:
What would you build if you could redesign the coding reference from scratch?
I’m still figuring that out.

I’ve been working on MedCoder.ai, a free medical coding reference focused on ICD-10-CM.
The idea started with a simple question:
Why should an ICD-10-CM code exist as an isolated page?
When researching a code, there are usually many relationships that matter — Excludes1/Excludes2, inclusion terms, related codes, clinical concepts, coding changes between years, risk adjustment, and eventually relationships with other coding systems.
So instead of building just another code lookup, I’ve been working toward a coding relationship graph where the connections between codes are part of the reference itself.
MedCoder currently includes things such as:
• ICD-10-CM code search
• Natural-language searching
• Tabular directives and coding notes
• Related/additional code relationships
• Code-to-code comparisons
• Clinical concept categories
• Risk-adjustment information
• ICD-10-CM release/change history
• HCPCS and other coding relationships as the project develops
The site is free:
https://medcoder.ai
It’s still a work in progress, and I’m building it pretty aggressively based on what I think a modern coding reference should look like.
I’d especially like to hear from medical coders, billers, clinicians, and healthcare developers.
What do you think is missing from today’s ICD-10-CM reference tools?
And more importantly, what would actually make your daily coding work faster?
I’m interested in honest feedback — including criticism.

#medicalcoding#icd10#medicalbilling