Cancer Registry Data Stewardship
Cancer Registry data curation isn’t extra.Good stewardship drives change. Cancer registrars have always shouldered the responsibility of abstracting data, but the role now demands more. In this series, we’ve shown how registrars can move beyond manual tasks to become curators of real-time, accurate, and actionable data. The final step in this transformation is stewardship. Stewardship […]How Will You Reshape Your Role as an ODS?
Where do you focus your energy?What’s your secret? Socrates said “the secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” His wisdom is still relevant today and to Oncology Data Specialists (cancer registrars)! Yesterday a fellow ODS shared their wisdom on a recent post […]
Curation Makes Registry Data Actionable
Cancer Registrars connect data to patient care.Curation make it actionable. Cancer registrars have long been valued for their accuracy and attention to detail. But when the registry’s role is limited to meeting minimum required fields, that expertise is under-utilized. Compliance-focused, concurrent abstracting augmented by automation, creates static snapshots—not tools for intervention, insight, or innovation. Curating […]
Curated Data Drives Care
Cancer data without curation is noise.Curated data drives care. Every case curated by a cancer registrar expands the ability of providers to make timely, accurate, and life-saving decisions. Retrospective abstracting produces compliance data, but curating in near real-time, supported by automation, transforms fragmented records into structured insights that matter in real time. The difference between […]
Curation Elevates Registry Data
Cancer case abstracting captures.Curation transforms. Traditional abstracting has primarily focused on a minimum set of reporting requirements for the State or accreditation program. While necessary, this transactional approach produces retrospective and limited information–data that satisfies mandates but falls short of what is needed for today’s healthcare decision-making needs. Curating takes the same incoming ata and […]
Data Curation Changes Everything
Cancer case abstracting is evolving.Curating the data makes it meaningful. For decades, cancer registrars were trained in manual abstracting—retrospectively reviewing charts, searching, reading, and typing every detail, and finalizing cases months after treatment ended. The role was often defined by data entry rather than data impact. Data curation changes everything. To curate is to select, […]
Concurrent Data Saves Lives
Cancer Registry data after-the-fact is history.Concurrent data saves lives. A common misperception is that cancer registry data is “only for reporting compliance.” If it is collected months later or manually abstracted, that is often true – it is too outdated to be informative or useful. Perception: “Cancer Registry data is just for state or accreditation […]
Concurrent Abstracting Produces Less Errors
Manual abstracting does not equal control.Curating data does. Some cancer registrars resist AI-automation of abstracting data because they believe manual work equals accuracy and quality. They fear that letting AI assistance will reduce their role or compromise accuracy. False Perception: “Manual abstracting equals control.” In fact, the opposite is true. Manual abstraction often chains cancer […]