Starting July 1, 2021, Certified Tumor Registrars (CTRs) will earn CE credits at UNC. Roxanne Heaphy is the Clinical Reliability Manager at the UNC Medical Center Office of Quality of Excellence. I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Roxanne about CTR credits. Please see the interview below.
Roxanne, precisely what is a Cancer Registry, and how does it benefit patients and physicians?
A cancer registry is an information system designed for the collection, management, and analysis of data on patients diagnosed with a malignant or neoplastic disease.
Hospital registries maintain data on all patients diagnosed and/or treated for cancer at their facility. Healthcare facilities report cancer cases to the central or state cancer registry as required by law.
A national cancer database is beneficial because it calculates cancer incidence, evaluates the efficacy of treatment modalities, calculates survival rates, develops educational and screening programs, and conducts research on the etiology, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer.
What is the history of the UNC Cancer Registry?
- The Commission has accredited the University of North Carolina Cancer Hospitals on Cancer since 1977.
- One of only 51 National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer centers.
- The only public comprehensive cancer center in NC.
- The NC Cancer Hospital opened in August 2009 and is the flagship site for UNC Cancer Care and the clinical home of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.
- Our mission is to reduce cancer incidence, morbidity, and mortality in North Carolina and the nation through research, treatment, training, and outreach.
What did people that needed CTR credits have to do before they were offered at UNC?
An outside organization provided free educational credits for all CTRs and has scaled back on its offerings.
What does this mean for those needing CTR credits at UNC?
Opportunity to attain continuing education. To identify and connect if needed with resources in the SOM.
Besides the obvious, what problems are being solved by offering CTRs and why?
The ability to have continuing education credits through UNC Lineberger allows our Certified Tumor Registrars to stay up to date on cancer research and provide them information on resources available for all our patients.
Who will benefit from CTRs?
CTRs are an integral part of cancer research. They are responsible for state and national cancer statics.
How long do you follow the patients and their outcomes?
Diagnosis -until death
What is the focus of the registry?
Cancer registrars are data informatics specialists that capture a complete history, diagnosis, treatment, and health status for every cancer patient in the US.
How is the collected data used?
CTR abstraction of over 200 data points that are reported to our state and national cancer registries. Data is nationally reported and drives cancer treatment.
What is Rapid Case Ascertainment (RCA)?
- Result of a collaboration between the Department of Health and Human Services-NC Central Cancer Registry and UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.
- Supports population-based epidemiologic, behavioral, clinical, health services.
- Facilitates research to advance knowledge of causes, treatment, control, and prevention of cancer.
- A valuable resource that is making continued research possible in North Carolina and other states.
- Primary funding from National Cancer Institute Cancer Center Support Grant to the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Why is offering CTR credits so important?
Engage our UNCMC Cancer Registrars in current research ongoing at the SOM. They get to see the results of their ongoing data metrics entry and how it drives and improves cancer patient care.
How might this evolve?
I would like to create a system-wide registry collaborative to support our other UNC entities, provide support on National and State guidelines, align system-wide policies/procedures, open forum for discussion of registry issues, fully utilize our SOM for education on current and future cancer patient care, and to provide educational opportunities to CTRs statewide.
Is there anything else you would like to share with our subscribers?
Yes, our registry data supports the following:
- UNC MC and Lineberger Survivorship Project
- COVID 19 Impact on UNC Cancer Care
- UNCMC Rectal Program CoC Accreditation
- DHHS- NC State POC study: UNC Cancer Registry will take part in the Patterns of Care (POC) Study from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Cancer Institute (NCI), and National Cancer Institute-Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program (SEER)