Cancer Registration

Automated Cancer Registration

The WMCIU is moving to the electronic receipt and automated processing of cancer registration data. Mechanisms are being implemented to receive and store electronic data and rules are being developed to automate the registration process. A project manager has been appointed to oversee and co-ordinate this change. On the basis of the information collected in the stocktake and gap analysis exercises carried out by Cancer Network Liaison Officers (CNLOs) funded through the Action Programme for Cancer Registration, major sources of electronic data have been identified which can be used to register and record diagnosis and treatment information for significant numbers of cancer cases. Radiotherapy, death certificates, Cancer Waiting Times (CWT), pathology and Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data have been the major areas of activity to date.

All electronic data received by the WMCIU will be stored in a single repository along with a unique identifier. This also identifies the record type, source and date of receipt. A data dictionary has been developed which allows all data sources that are received to be defined and mapped to the National Cancer dataset (NCDS) and to the WMCIU’s own dataset (which may contain items not within the NCDS). Rules are being developed for registration processes that include patient matching, tumour matching, event matching, data consolidation (i.e. merging multiple data sources into a single record) and validation. Each data source type can have a different set of rules applied at each stage of the registration process. The rules have been developed to use NCDS definitions wherever possible so that they can be utilised by different data sources.

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