Registry Best Practices

Developed and presented by members of the NCRA Education Committee, the Registry Best Practice Mini-Learning Series of narrated presentations are intended to help the abstracting process become more efficient and accurate.  These presentations are short, direct, and easy to understand. The Education Committee welcomes your ideas for topics you would like to hear from you in the future. Send an email with your ideas to the  Committee. 

NCRA's Mini-Learning Shorts

The NCRA Education Committee has created a selection of short, 10-minutes or less, presentations to address important points in  each of the topics.  The presentations are intended for new registrars to help clarify procedure and duties in the registries, and for seasoned registrars, who may need a refresher.  

Melanoma Surgery Coding

Part I: What is Informatics?

Managing Your Cancer Registry Policies & Procedures

Juliet Wilkins, MA, CTR will discuss correct coding of surgical codes for melanoma cases. The presentation includes information on specific manuals, pertinent information from the operative report, the difference between surgical procedures for the treatment of melanoma and lymph node procedures for melanoma cases.

Presented by members of the 2021-2022 NCRA Informatics Committee, this educational mini-short, “Part I:  What is Informatics?” will define informatics, outline some of the disciplines within informatics, review key terms and concepts, and discuss what informatics means to the cancer registrar, including the impact and challenges in the registry. 

Barbara Dearmon-Neyland will discuss the importance of the cancer registry policies and procedures, their purpose, structure, and the annual review process. She will highlight the Commission on Cancer’s requirements for accredited cancer programs and tools available. She will provide strategies and tips on keeping ahead of accreditation reviews.

Using the Manuals: Grade Coding

Using the Manuals: Breast, Part I

Using the Manuals: Breast, Part II

 Monica Reece, RHIT, CTR, from the NCRA Education Committee, will discuss general grade coding instructions and focus on grade time frames, grade clinical and pathological and the post therapy grading rules.

Cynthia Jeffrey, RHIT, CTR will review resources for abstracting breast cases such as: STORE Manual, Solid Tumor Rules Manual, and the Multiple Primary & Histology Coding Rules.

Cynthia Jeffrey, RHIT, CTR will review resources for abstracting breast cases such as: Site-Specific Data Items, the Coding Grade Manual, and the AJCC Cancer Staging Manual, 8^th Edition.

Class of Case: Analytic or Non-Analytic?

Casefinding

Follow-Up

Barbara Dearmon, BS, CTR will discuss how Class of Case reflects the facility’s role in managing the cancer cases, whether the cancer is required to be reported by CoC, and whether the case was diagnosed after the program’s Reference Date. Participants will better understand the divisions of Class of Case and be able to differentiate between Analytic and Non-Analytic cases.

Members of the NCRA Education Committee will discuss cancer case reportability and the tools used by registrars, different methods of casefinding, the casefinding list and non-reportable cases, and the standards that guide registrars.

Presenter Juliet Wilkins, MA, CTR will discuss the follow-up process and its relation to accurate data in the registry record. She will provide answers to questions about differences in terminology used by physicians and that which is used by cancer registrars in the registry. The presentation will provide examples to illustrate the differences in the definitions between recurrence of a disease and disease-free.

Using the Manuals - Abstracting a Breast Case

Using the Manuals - Solid Tumor Rules

Using the Manuals - Abstracting a Lung Case

Susanna Mitchell from the NCRA Education Committee, provides a breast case and works through the scenario using the manuals in the most effective way. She provides handy tips and techniques for finding the information needed.

This presentation is a quick overview of the Solid Tumor Rules (STR) and it provides tips on using them.  Presented by the NCRA Education Committee Chair, Juliet Wilkins, CTR, this session may help you clarify important aspects of the STR in a concise way.

Juliet Wilkins, CTR Chair of the NCRA Education Committee, provides a lung case and works through the scenario using the manuals in a most effective way.  She provides handy tips and techniques for finding the information needed.

Summary Stage 2018 Overview

SSDI General Overview

In this presentation, NCRA Education Committee member Susanna Mitchell, CTR, reviews the general rules and updates of Summary Stage (SS) 2018 and provides examples of correctly assigning SS 2018 Stage.

The presentation provides a thorough review of the general rules of the Site-Specific Data Items (SSDI) and will discuss how to correctly assign an SSF schema.