What is a Cancer Registrar?
Cancer Registrars are highly trained data management health professionals who collect, classify, and analyze cancer information. Their primary focus in on the cancers diagnosed and/or treated at the facility where they work or with another defined population or subset of patients.
Data collection and management is a complex process that requires extensive training and collaboration with the cancer standard-setting agencies. Each new diagnoses of cancer within the facility is carefully abstracted and data coded and classified according to multiple standards and guidelines. From the date of diagnoses, and for the remainder of the patient’s life, data is collected and used to determine if the diagnostic and treatment methods used by providers is effective and survival rates.
The cancer registrar’s work goes far beyond keeping the data (i.e., curation) accurate and complete. They also work closely with physicians, advanced practice providers, allied health professionals, administrators, clinical researchers and other members of a facility’s leadership teams to provide data and support for the cancer program. They collaborate and support the conduct of cancer-related quality studies and improvements, evaluation of the facility’s concordance with evidence-based medicine and guidelines and are required members of the facility’s Cancer Committee and other selected workgroups.
As a curator, the cancer registrar is also accountable for monitoring and overseeing the data collection process and discovering opportunities for cancer program improvements, staying current with the cancer-directed and relevant practices in medicine, publications, webinars and community needs.
Ongoing professional education is critical to the Cancer Registrar’s long term success. Clinical and scientific information is changing at a rapid pace and the Registrar must be self-motivated and committed to continuing education. By seeking out and participating in a broad range of continuing education activities, the Cancer Registrar expands their skill sets and ensures that they are a value-added member of the collaborative cancer team.