Quality Assurance and Continuing Education: A Cyclic Approach for Maintaining High Quality Data in a High Volume Cancer Registry

Abstract

Quality Assurance and Education are 2 areas of the Cancer Registry that go hand in hand. High-quality data can only be maintained through routine surveillance of data quality coupled with tailored continuing education of certified tumor registrars (CTRs). However, the magnitude of information a CTR is required to know, the rapid frequency with which standards change, and growing demands on the time of the CTRs can be roadblocks to maintaining quality in the Cancer Registry. Here we describe a robust approach to quality assurance in a high-volume hospital-based Cancer Registry, leveraging a repeated cycle of quality assessment and educational activities targeting identified opportunities for improvement. Establishing such an approach encourages the professional development of CTRs while simultaneously ensuring the highest quality data for use in population-based cancer surveillance, cancer research, and patient care.