Module 11: Uses of Cancer Registry Data

The NPCR Education and Training Series (NETS) is a series of educational tools for state trainers to support central cancer registries in their role of providing education to staff and reporters. For more information about how you may use the NETS modules, please see Guidelines for Using the NETS Modules.

The materials in this module have been developed to provide an overview of the various ways in which hospital cancer registry data and central registry data can be used. The module consists of two parts:

1. Uses of Facility Registry Data (approximately one hour in length)
   This presentation discusses the various departments in a hospital or other cancer treatment facility, such as administration and medical staff, who can benefit from using cancer registry data for resource planning, physician recruitment, and cancer program marketing, among other uses of the data. The presentation also gives many examples of the types of facility cancer registry information that community groups and agencies can use. In addition to the examples, there is an expanded discussion of data presentation in general, which covers creating good graphs, design tips, and selecting the correct type of graph for your message and your audience.



2. Uses of Central Registry Data (approximately one hour in length)
   This presentation is from the perspective of the central cancer registry and discusses various uses of CCR data. There are examples of data uses from many different states that include cancer control monitoring, health event (cancer cluster) investigations, program and resource planning, and epidemiologic studies, among other uses. There is also an in-depth discussion of the various types of central registries, from general and population-based registries to specialty registries like pediatrics or familial cancers.

The PowerPoint presentations contain abundant material, such as examples of specific ways that registry data can be used. You do not have to include everything in your presentation. It is most important that you customize your presentation for your audience, based on your assessment of the audience’s training needs. For example, if your registry has done something different or creative with its data, supplement or replace the current content of the presentation with your registry-specific content. Add graphs or provide a handout to describe what is discussed in the speaker notes. If you only have a half-hour to focus on a specific issue, use only the slides pertinent to that issue. You know your audience best—use your judgment regarding what to include in the training. Your audience may consist of non-medical listeners who want to know what a registry does; if so, skip the details of individual reports and focus on the big picture of cancer data collection. Your audience may consist of hospital administrators; if so, focus on what a hospital registry can provide to administration or what the central registry does with hospital data. The point is that you should tailor the presentation(s) to the needs of your audience.

Audience participation and discussion should be encouraged. If you are presenting to a group of experienced registrars, ask them how they have used registry data to help resolve issues at their facility. If you are presenting an in-service program to relatively new central registry staff, combine the “how to” slides in Part 1 with examples in Part 2.

A great deal of material has been compiled for you in this module; make it your own by adding from your own experience.