Clinical Corner
Frederick L. Greene, MD, FACS, CMO
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Advances in precision medicine are taking place at an unprecedented rate. Precision medicine is defined by the NIH as "an emerging approach for disease treatment and prevention that takes into account individual variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle for each person." This approach will allow the development of screening, treatment and prevention strategies for a particular disease that will optimize outcomes for individual patients. This is in contrast to a more traditional, one-size-fits-all approach, where disease treatment and prevention strategies are developed for the “typical” patient, with less consideration for the differences between individuals.
Genetic testing is a rapidly evolving component of precision medicine with the potential to guide individual patient care. Multiple tumor types in different organ systems have now been identified as sharing similar genetic features with many being inherited through the germ line. Recognizing these features may increase the likelihood of identifying familial or hereditary cancer syndromes that may impact the individual or family members’ screening strategies or direct treatment with specific targeted agents.
The message for our registry community is that we have a powerful tool, CRStar, that allows us to capture these data which may not be collated anywhere else in the patient’s cancer journey. Working with clinical colleagues, cancer registrars can maximize the power of our cancer registry and lead the effort to assure that modern genomic and genetic characteristics are archived.
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Cancer Center Showcase
OU Health
Oklahoma City, OK
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Our Cancer Center Showcase series continues this month with OU Health located in Oklahoma City, OK. The Oklahoma University Medical Center Cancer Registry was started in 1972 and since that time the health system has gone through a variety of expansions and integrations. Currently, OU Health is comprised of OU Medical Center, Children’s Hospital, OU Physicians, OU Children’s Physicians, the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine and the Peggy and Charles Stephenson Oklahoma Cancer Center.
Nancy Etzold, CTR, is the Director of the Cancer Registry which consists of eleven employees, all who are employees of the health system. Prior to Nancy's management of the registry, contracting services were used. Accuracy and timeliness suffered so in 2017, the registry transitioned to staff registrars. Currently, all registry staff works remotely with only the rectal cancer coordinator and Nancy working on campus. The registry accessions 4,800 total annual cases - 3,600 are analytic and 1,200 are non-analytic. However, the registry abstracts a full abstract for each non-analytic case, as they see a large volume of cases for disease progression and recurrences.
OU Health has been CoC accredited since 1972. The OU Breast Institute is NAPBC accredited, and they are currently working on a system-wide consolidation for the 2024 NAPBC survey. The health system is working towards NAPRC accreditation with a goal of becoming accredited with the 2022 survey. The Stephenson Cancer Center of OU Health has been NCI designated since 2018 and is ranked #1 in the country for accruing 80% of patients to clinical trials.
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If you are interested in featuring your health system in a future edition of the ERS newsletter, please contact us using the link below. |
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Melanie Rogan's New Adventure |
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It is with great sadness that ERS is saying goodbye to Melanie Rogan, who has been a significant part of the DNA of the company for most of its existence. Her 24 year tenure with this organization has greatly contributed to the success and growth of the company, as well as to the development and evolution of the product. Melanie informed us recently that she leaving us to embark on a new adventure to fulfill aspects of her long-standing ambition while continuing her commitment to the field of cancer registry.
Melanie has held several positions with the company over the years, most recently as Director of Growth and Strategic Services. She has supported, trained, educated and mentored many employees and clients during her time with ERS. Melanie has always had a passion for giving back to the cancer registry profession and has been an enthusiastic volunteer leader in both her state association and NCRA.
We have no doubt that Melanie will be greatly missed by all of us! While this will undoubtedly be a difficult transition for the company, we would like to take this opportunity to wish Melanie well in her future endeavor and look forward to our paths crossing with future collaboration. We know Melanie will always share the ERS mission to improve cancer care for every patient!
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Industry News:
CoC Standard 6.5 Updated
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As a reminder, CoC Standard 6.5: Follow-Up of Patients has been updated to reflect a rolling 15-year requirement for long term follow-up. It will no longer be required to follow cases older than 15 years from the most current year of completed cases.
For example, for calendar year 2022, follow-up would include cases diagnosis years 2005-2019. Exception: If the cancer program was not first accredited before 2005, the first accredited year would be used.
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Reminder:
Call for Data & v22 Changes
Educational Webinar Coming Soon!
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CRStar users should have received their invitation for our upcoming educational webinar, Ready, Set, Go ... Call for Data & v22 Changes. This one hour webinar will be presented by our new Manager, Strategic Services, Amy Arnold, BA, CTR, at noon EST on Tuesday, Feb 15, 2022. An encore presentation will take place at noon EST on Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022.
Invitations were emailed to clients on Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022. This webinar has been approved for 1 CEU by NCRA.
If you did not receive an invitation, please submit a ticket through our online HelpDesk and an invitation will be sent to the email address we have on file. Looking forward to seeing you there!
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The Value of Collecting Supplemental Systemic Therapy Data |
Cancer registries play an active role in cancer control and research to reduce the burden of cancer. Registry data collection is essentially mandated by multiple standard setters, all with that same goal in mind.
Supplemental systemic treatment information can be extremely valuable for cancer programs and health systems for research, clinical trials and other areas. CRStar provides a multitude of systemic treatment fields to supplement the required data set.
Below is a table listing the supplemental fields located in the treatment section of the abstract.
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The supplemental data can be used alone or combined with other data fields for meaningful treatment insights. Below are several examples. |
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Reminder: 2022 SEER ICD-10 Casefinding List |
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As a reminder, the 2022 SEER Casefinding list is available on the SEER website at:
CRStar users should review the list for changes that would affect your casefinding imports and/or automated interfaces. Also, check with your state registry for possible changes to their reportable diagnosis codes.
After review, if changes are required, please open a support ticket and a member of our team will contact you to assist with the necessary changes. This will ensure reportable cases are not missed.
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Care to be Aware!
Cyber Security Tips
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Each of us faces an endless barrage of applications requiring us to create passwords for every single website and application we use. All the variations and complexity requirements make it hard to remember the correct password from one site to the next. And then there is a convenient setting in most browsers that offers to save your passwords for you. This option allows you to unburden your mind from having to remember each password for each different site and it eliminates the need for you to type your credentials each time. But is this a good thing?
From a security standpoint the answer is no. Having your username and password saved on a login page may be a time saver but it adds a substantial security risk. Hackers, once connected to your machine, can typically gather your private passwords from your browser with little difficulty. And if you reuse passwords on multiple sites, they will have a key that opens multiple doors. Not saving passwords in your browser is similar to locking the doors on your computer. And, just like your car and your house, locked doors bring both security and peace of mind.
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Do you love CRStar?
So do we and we are offering our loyal customers the chance to earn a $200 gift card when a Cancer Program that you refer becomes an ERS customer!
Please click "Refer CRStar" below if you know of any Cancer Programs that could benefit from CRStar and the advantages that CRStar users enjoy and rely on.
Let's grow our CRStar community together!
Terms and conditions can be found on the CRStar Referral Form.
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ERS, Inc. | www.mycrstar.com |
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