Your Stories: Recognizing National Cancer Registrars Week

Trinity Health Of New England’s team of cancer registrars are highly skilled and trained data management experts who collect accurate, complete, and timely data on cancer patients.

April 8 – 12 marks the 28^th annual National Cancer Registrars Week (NCRW). The purpose of NCRW is to emphasize the important role cancer registrars play in capturing the data that informs cancer research, prevention, and treatment programs. Cancer Registries serve as the starting point for cancer surveillance. Through case abstraction, registrars document pertinent demographic, diagnosis, and treatment information on all diagnosed cancer patients. They also perform lifetime follow up on all cancer patients which provides data to determine recurrence and survival rates.

Cases are reported to the state central cancer registries and the National Cancer Database. Through these data submissions cases are linked to provide valuable treatment information to aid research on the etiology, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer.

Trinity Health Of New England’s team of cancer registrars are highly skilled and trained data management experts who collect accurate, complete, and timely data on cancer patients. Cancer Registrars who abstract data are required to hold an Oncology Data Specialist certification which is maintained and administered by the National Cancer Registrars Association. To maintain certification, registrars must undergo 20 hours of education and training every two years. The cancer registry team at Trinity Health Of New England are all certified.

Each Trinity Health Of New England hospital, Saint Mary’s, Saint Francis, Mercy Medical Center, and Johnson maintain a cancer registry. The registry maintains a multi-facility database which allows registrars to abstract for each market individually and allows them to also generate data for all four facilities at the same time when necessary. The department is a regional team and support each of the ministries. Colleagues work remotely so that it can access a larger talent pool when recruiting. The staff reside in, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, Missouri, Tennessee, Mississippi, West Virginia, Oklahoma, and Texas!

Submitted by Amy Baldwin-Stephens, BS, RHIT, ODS-Certified, Regional Cancer Registry Manager

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