Making Cancer Incidence Data More Accessible and Understandable

Missouri Cancer Registry

The Missouri Information for Community Assessment (MICA), which provides cancer case counts and incidence rates in a tabular format by site, age group, gender, and race at the state, regional, and county levels, is an interactive tool that has provided useful cancer incidence data to epidemiologists and health professionals for more than a decade. However, it is often difficult for the general public, and even some health professionals, to understand or relate to data presented in "big tables with lots of numbers." Health consumers and educators wanted a more convenient way to obtain local-level Missouri cancer incidence data in a user-friendly format.

In an effort to improve visualization of cancer incidence data, the Missouri Cancer Registry (MCR) undertook two projects. The first project was to produce an interactive map showing all 114 Missouri counties plus the city of St. Louis. With one click, the user can view the top 10 sites by percentage in any given county for males, females, and total population for a five-year period.

Next, we adapted InstantAtlas™ software to present county-level health data for Missouri in a dynamic report generator. This technology allows the MCR to present data in a more user-friendly way so that the public, health educators, and others can view and display data in a variety of formats that are easy to understand.

The Top 10 Sites report has been very popular with the general public and the staff of local public health agencies. Following introduction of the Top 10 Sites, the number of visits to our Web site increased and the number of phone calls requesting local-level data decreased. By improving data visualization, we developed better communication with the general public and engaged health policy makers in more informed decision making.