September News - Prostate Cancer Awareness Month and much more!

September 2020

In this newsletter, you will find:

September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month
Upcoming Webinar - Please Join Us!
A Blast from the Past - Sally Kruse
Visit our Virtual Booth @ NCRA 2020
Industry News - Version 21 Upgrade Update
September Employee Spotlight
Refer ERS - Earn $200
Connect with ERS on LinkedIn
Like Us on Facebook

September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month

September is a very busy cancer awareness month! The following sites are recognized in September:

Childhood Cancer
Ovarian Cancer
Blood Cancer
Gynecologic Cancer
Prostate Cancer

This month we will focus on prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in men, second only to skin cancer. In fact, one in nine men will develop prostate cancer in their lifetime and a man dies from prostate cancer every 16 minutes. Although it is highly prevalent, prostate cancer, if diagnosed early, can usually be treated successfully and has an excellent survival rate. In fact, almost 100% of prostate cancer patients will still be alive five years after their diagnosis.

Prostate screenings are extremely important. In most early stages of prostate cancer, there are no symptoms. Almost 95% of prostate cancer patients discovered they had cancer through a screening program, most commonly a Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) test and a Digital Rectal Exam (DRE). The other 5% of men learned about their diagnosis as a result of urinary or erectile issues.

Those with the greatest risk of developing prostate cancer are:

Men over the age of 50
Men with a family history of prostate cancer
African-American men

Other risk factors that may contribute are:

Obesity and lack of exercise
Men who take high doses of Vitamin E and Selenium
Exposure to Agent Orange, pesticides and metal cadmium
Lower levels of Bisphenol A (BPA)

Below are some easy to run reports in CRStar regarding prostate cancer to share with your cancer care team.

Upcoming Webinar - Please Join Us!

Please join us at noon EST, Tuesday, October 13th for our upcoming webinar titled Beyond Data Entry: Customization within the Registry. This one hour webinar will be presented by Christi Cox, CTR, Manager of Education and will demonstrate the use of many of the System Administration features in CRStar - everything from adding and setting up new users, customizing the abstract, managing data exports, maintaining forms and letters to configuring your dashboards.

Webinar invitations with registration links will be emailed to CRStar clients approximately two weeks prior to the webinar.

Future Webinar Suggestions

What topics interest you for future webinars? If you have suggestions, please contact Christi Cox, Manger of Education at [email protected] with your wish list!

A Blast from the Past - Sally Kruse

Social distancing and other pandemic protocols have allowed many of us time to get things organized around the house. While combing through some old boxes, we found an article from For the Record magazine from 1994 that features ERS's very own, Sally Kruse, CTR. Sally joined ERS in 1995.

This article is reprinted with the permission of For the Record © Great Valley Publishing, Co.

Read Standard Setters: Morton Plant Hospital.

Visit our Virtual Booth @ NCRA 2020

ERS will be participating in NCRA's first ever virtual conference which is being held September 20-23, 2020!

Please stop by our virtual "booth" for information about how ERS can help your cancer registry become the heart of your oncology program. See how you can maximize the potential of your cancer registry and the actionable data it provides! While you are visiting, don't forget to sign up for our raffle or schedule some time to speak with one of our knowledgeable CTR's.

Additionally, Melanie Rogan, CTR, Director of Registry Services for ERS, will be presenting Climbing the Data Mountain, a thorough illustration of how the data contained in the cancer registry's database can be leveraged to support not only the cancer program, but also the healthcare industry as a whole.

Melanie's presentation will be at 3:45 EST on Wednesday, Sept. 23rd. Don't miss it!

Industry News - Version 21 Upgrade Update

As most of you are aware, the NAACCR V21 implementation guidelines were recently published.

ERS plans to be ready to deploy and release our NAACCR Version 21 enhancements in January 2021, including the capability for our clients to export and submit data to the states and NCDB in the NAACCR v.21 xml layout. We are in communication with individual states regarding any new requirements, edit metafiles and their timelines for accepting V21 cases. As we finalize our plans in the coming months, we will keep you updated with additional details, including dates.

The NAACCR Implementation Guidelines were last updated in August 2020 and can be accessed here.

September Employee Spotlight

Our September Employee Spotlight shines on Renae Neumann, Manager of Marketing and Communications. Renae joined ERS in 2005 in a part-time administrative role, advancing to her current position in 2016. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in English from the University of Cincinnati in 2000 and is just a couple of classes away from a Master’s Degree in Education. Prior to ERS, Renae worked at as a publications assistant at a community newspaper and in various customer service roles.

During her long tenure at ERS, Renae has performed a wide range of duties, from assisting clients with administrative questions about their contracts and invoices, managing and maintaining the ERS website, organizing ERS’s participation at state meetings and the annual NCRA conference, to the creation of marketing documents, quotes and proposals. Her favorite part of working at ERS is two-fold. There is, of course, the interaction with our diverse client base that she has enjoyed speaking with over the many years. And also being part of a great team of coworkers, some of whom she considers to be great friends as well.

Renae is a lifetime resident of Cincinnati, Ohio, where she lives with Philip, her partner of 17 years, and Zooey, the greatest dog in the world. She and Philip will be married this year on Halloween. Together they have 4 adult children and two grandchildren. In her spare time, Renae enjoys many hobbies including crafting, reading, genealogy, kayaking and attending concerts with her family and friends, and traveling to eclipses. During the stay-at-home portion of the pandemic, Renae entered the world of online gaming, learning to play Fortnite as a way to stay connected with her 9 year old grandson who, needless to say, is a much better player than she.

Refer ERS - Earn $200

A few months ago, ERS implemented a customer referral program. To date, several loyal CRStar users have earned a $200 gift card. You could be next!

Please click "Refer a Prospect" below if you know of any Cancer Programs that could benefit from CRStar and the TLC all CRStar users enjoy and rely on. Should your referral become a CRStar user, you'll earn a $200 Gift Card.

Let's grow our CRStar community together!

Terms and conditions can be found on the CRStar Referral Form.