September 2021
In this newsletter, you will find:
  • Welcome New ERS Advisory Board Members!
  • About You! Putting the Spotlight on CTRs: Dr. Shirley Jordan Seay, CTR
  • Clinical Corner by Frederick L. Greene, MD, FACS, CMO
  • New CRStar User Manual Available
  • Tip of the Month: Enhanced Follow-Up and Letter Templates
  • September Employee Spotlight - Melanie Rogan
  • Refer CRStar - Earn $200
Welcome New ERS Advisory Board Members!
It is a pleasure to welcome the following appointed members to the newly created ERS Advisory Board! We are delighted to work with these thirteen dedicated professionals representing the very best of the cancer registry world. Through their commitment, our ERS Advisory Board will explore many avenues and strategies to enhance the importance of the cancer registry and to ensure that ERS and its products enable our cancer registrars and the registries they care for to reach their full potential. Congratulations to all!

  • Catherine Bieker, SCL Health
  • Carol Brown, UNC Margaret Pardee Hospital
  • Barbara Dearmon, Ascension St. Vincent’s
  • Sherita Hearn, Emory Health Care
  • Marcia Hodge, UF Shands
  • Lindsey Mason, Advent Health Central
  • Dauphne McGavic, Ascension St. Thomas
  • Brenda Mileto, UHHS
  • Cathy Rimmer, Novant Health
  • Dr. Shirley Jordon Seay, Santa Barbara City College
  • Jane Siekkinen, Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital
  • Cheryl Taft, GenesisCare, USA
  • Paige Tedder, Atrium Health
About You! Putting the Spotlight on CTRs
Dr. Shirley Jordan Seay, CTR
The next well-deserving CTR highlighted by our About You! Series is Dr. Shirley Jordan Seay, PhD, MSN, MEd and CTR. She is currently Professor/CIM Program Director for Santa Barbara City College. Her interview is posted on Facebook.

Reminder: The featured individual with the greatest number of “likes” on Facebook will receive a prize at the end of the year! If you're not already following us on Facebook, please make sure to click "Like" our page while you're there!

Please take this opportunity to engage and highlight a community that often doesn’t get recognized – and have some fun while doing it.
 
If you know of a CTR who deserves recognition or if you are a Cancer Center leader who would like to give a shout out to an outstanding CTR, please reach out and let us know. Upon getting permission with the CTR’s leadership, Sally Kruse, CTR, a legend in her own right, will follow up with a wide-ranging interview and a summary article representing her discussion.
Clinical Corner
Frederick L. Greene, MD, FACS, CMO
In the latest “Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer” which appeared as a pre-print report in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, it was reported that in the years 2014-2018 cancer death rates declined for women, men, children and adolescents and young adults (AYAs)! This decline in death rates was especially striking in patients with metastatic melanoma. In some cancers, such as breast and colorectal cancer, the declining rates slowed during this period and deaths from prostate cancer levelled off. Sadly, not all the news was positive. Death rates increased for CNS cancers and pancreatic and uterine cancer.

Other findings from the new report to the nation include the following:

  • Overall cancer incidence rates were higher among men than women in every racial and ethnic group with the exception of Asian/Pacific Islanders where the rates were similar.
  • Overall cancer incidence rates were slightly lower among Black patients than White patients
  • Two-year relative survival for advanced-stage melanoma cases diagnosed during 2001-2009 was stable, but improved 3.1% per year for melanoma diagnosed during 2009-2014

It is always interesting to read these summaries and to reflect on our clinical successes as well as our continued challenges. What is not mentioned in these reports is the intense work by you, the registry community, in initiating the abstracts and data retrieval that allow for these analyses. Our cancer registrars, working in hospital settings, central and state registries as well as the NCI-supported SEER registries, represent the foundation that allows for these annual updates.

For our ERS family, the ability to include data that are sent to state and national registries is facilitated by having software that allows for complete and accurate capture and reporting of cancer trends. This is the message that is usually not discussed in annual reports, but the role of our registrars and registry capabilities must be understood and appreciated by clinicians, researchers, governmental agencies and the public every time an “Annual Report to the Nation” is released!
New CRStar User Manual Available
An updated version of the CRStar User Manual was posted on the CRStar Resource Page on 8/20/2021 and is available for download!

Be sure to replace your old copies with the updated version.
Tip of the Month
Enhanced Follow-Up and Letter Templates
At ERS, we like to help our customers improve their workflow and increase efficiency and productivity! This month’s tip-of-the-month will focus on the use of the Enhanced Follow-Up method and letter templates.

In CRStar, there are several options for performing monthly follow-up. One method is called Enhanced Follow-Up. With this method, users are able to enter up to four physicians and/or contacts for letters to automatically be scheduled until all efforts have been exhausted and that patient become lost to follow-up. When a patient becomes due for follow-up, the letter generated will be for the first physician/contact listed on the outcomes screen. Each month after the initial attempt and the follow-up for that patient has not been received and updated, the software will generate a letter to the next contact on the enhanced list until the patient is considered lost after the fourth attempt.

In addition to the enhanced method, the user may also set up letter templates, which eliminates the need to search or browse for a physician(s) or contact. The users can create as many different templates as desired and each template can house up to four contacts. These contacts will automatically be copied over from the Care Team, Current Patient Address or the Secondary Contact names and addresses.

A few examples of templates may be:

  • Monthly Follow-Up template: 
  • Treating physician follow-up template: Primary Surgeon, Medical Oncologist, Radiation Oncologist
  • Other contact follow-up template: Hospital Registry, Patient, Secondary Contact #1, Secondary Contact #2

Once the templates have been created, the user simply chooses the appropriate template from the drop-down selection. These templates help to take away the guess work of who the appropriate follow-up contacts should be when abstracting and can increase productivity, as well as follow-up efficiency! For more information on this tip, please refer to the CRStar User Manual, Video Tutorials or submit a support ticket and a member of our team will be happy to assist!
September Employee Spotlight - Melanie Rogan
This month’s employee spotlight shines on Melanie Rogan, who recently celebrated her 23rd year with ERS! She began her career in the cancer registry field in 1995 as an Oncology Data Analyst at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, NC. Before entering the registry field, Melanie was a Respiratory Therapist. Melanie is currently the Director of Registry Services, where she oversees growth activities for the company, including sales, product development and education.

Melanie has served in many leadership roles in the cancer registry community, holding several NCRA committee positions and board of directors’ positions, including NCRA President. She received the NCRA Distinguished Member Award in 2018 and is the current Nominating Committee Chair. Melanie has also led her state association, the Association of NC Cancer Registrars (ANCCR) in several board positions including president, treasurer and several other board positions. In 2013, ANCCR awarded Melanie the Lou Wood’s Distinguished Member Award.

When asked what her favorite part of the job is, Melanie says, “It is so hard to pick a favorite! I love working with my co-workers. We really are a team and rely on each other to accomplish our company and clients' goals and objectives. I enjoy engaging and networking with our clients, partners and the cancer registry community, where I feel like I learn new things every day! Continuing education is very important to me and my position with ERS has allowed me to provide education to our clients and the cancer registry community in multiple forums.

Melanie lives in Lewisville, NC, just outside of Winston-Salem with her husband, Robert of 30 years. Melanie loves all outdoor activities and especially enjoys spending time on the coast of NC or hiking in the mountains near her home. Melanie is also an avid horse enthusiast and rides any chance she can!  She enjoys entertaining and spending time with friends and family. Melanie says, “Our front door is always open and the porch light is always on. Those impromptu visitors are the best”!
Refer CRStar - Earn $200
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.
View a CRStar video
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