At a glance
This page explains how data flow to and within the Registry Plus software suite.
Data flow to the Registry Plus suite
The process starts when the central registry receives cancer data from reporting sources such as physician offices, pathology labs, non-hospital cancer treatment facilities, clinics, and hospitals.
The data may be submitted through secure file transfer protocol (SFTP), or other interfaces in the form of HL7 2.x format or Clinical Document Architecture (CDA) format messages. eMaRC Plus processes cancer pathology reports received in the HL7 2.x format and physician reports received in CDA format and outputs them to abstracts in the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR) XML format.
The data may also be submitted as NAACCR XML files generated by facility vendor software, Abstract Plus, or Web Plus. Web Plus serves as a secure file upload interface as well as supporting online abstracting.
Additional data sources such as state death files can be used to perform linkage with central registry data. The results along with linkage data requested from the National Death Index can be incorporated into the central registry database to populate death related data items and supplement cancer data. Partial abstracts from linkage results can be uploaded into Web Plus for follow-back with facilities.
Data flow within the Registry Plus suite
Among Registry Plus programs, abstracts generated from eMaRC Plus can be uploaded into Web Plus for follow-back with physicians. Bundles of raw electronic cancer data are processed in eMaRC Plus, Abstract Plus, or Web Plus to output data for importing and storage in the central database. Registry Plus CORE is the software application housing the central database.
The Registry Plus CORE preprocessing module:
- Receives NAACCR XML abstracts from Abstract Plus, eMaRC Plus, Web Plus, or any hospital-based software that can produce abstracts in the NAACCR record format.
- Prepares the abstracts for incorporation into its central database.
- Keeps archives of these bundles as they are processed.
- Allows abstracts to be held for review by other users.
- Records the status of each abstract in the tracking database as it is processed.
Abstracts can be preliminarily linked to records in the central registry processing module. Processed abstracts are transferred from the preprocessing module to the central registry processing module.
The central registry processing module in Registry Plus CORE:
- Stores the abstracts in a Microsoft® SQL Server database.
- Manages the central registry database.
- Determines multiple primary tumors automatically.
- Consolidates data items from multiple abstracts into incidence records automatically.
- Provides several reports.
- Allows data to be extracted for NAACCR and National Program of Cancer Registries national calls for data submissions, interstate data exchange, and research.
Other applications in the Registry Plus suite include:
- Tools for editing cancer data:
- GenEDITS Plus: A batch-mode application for editing any standard cancer data file including NAACCR XML with any metafile.
- Edit Writer: A complete development environment for defining, testing, documenting, and distributing data standard edits.
- Edit Engine Library: An application program interface (API) that can be incorporated into many kinds of programs including applications for abstracting, data verification, recoding, and reformatting.
- Exchange Plus: A tool for working with NAACCR data exchange files formatted according to the NAACCR XML Data Exchange Standard Implementation Guide.
- Utilities including the NorthCon Record Converter, which converts files of cancer registry abstracts in the NAACCR format to updated NAACCR versions.