University of Chicago earns Elekta’s 2022 Registry Team of the Year

At the recent National Cancer Registrars Association (NCRA) annual meeting, Elekta announced that a group of 12 certified tumor registrars (CTR) at the University of Chicago was the recipient of the company’s 2022 Registry Team of the Year honors.

“The CTRs comprising this exemplary team showed their dedication to continually go above and beyond.”

“The CTRs comprising this exemplary team showed their dedication to continually go above and beyond to provide extended data collection and reporting services through the METRIQ cancer registry informatics solution,” says Cassie A. Simon, a CTR who has served in the cancer registry field for three decades and is the leader of the University of Chicago registry. “These accurate and detailed data are used for various initiatives on local, regional and national levels and serves as a pinnacle for cancer registries.

“We are a team of registrars that works very hard to identify, document and report on data for our administration, for cancer researchers and for national cancer databases,” she adds. “Data quality is vitally important to us. We take that extra step to ensure data quality and to collaborate with our researchers and administration to provide them with the exact high-quality data they need.”

Recently, the University of Chicago’s registry data were harnessed to assist administrative planning for the institution’s $633 million, 500,000 square-foot facility dedicated to cancer care on its medical campus. This is among the largest investments made by the academic health system for patients and the community.

“We are very proud that our registry data are a trusted and utilized source for such a high-level project, which will improve cancer care on Chicago’s south side,” she observes.

Acquiring and reporting on the huge volume of cancer data takes a tremendous amount of hard work, resource time and a very dedicated staff, according to Simon.

“For example, our registry data are used for the CMS’s Oncology Care Model, ASCO’s QOPI, grants and clinical proposals, study cohort identification, IRB approved cancer research trials and publications, NCI Data Table III, the Chicago Breast Consortium, as well as regulatory reporting,” Simon says.

The University of Chicago registry has used Elekta’s METRIQ cancer registry for more than 15 years.

“METRIQ allows us to manipulate and create abstracts exactly the way we want them.”

“METRIQ allows us to manipulate and create abstracts exactly the way we want them, Simon notes. “We can change fonts and modify data fields flexibly to provide the additional information we need for the CMS Oncology Care Model. METRIQ also enables us to generate and run reporting mechanisms.”

Commenting on the 2022 Registry of the Year honors, she says: “I am very happy and proud of my team for their dedication and determination, and their devotion to providing high-quality data. We work together as a team. We are truly a well-oiled machine here at the University of Chicago.”

In addition to Simon, the University of Chicago registry team includes: Therese Bueno, Patti Duffy, Maria Garcia, Melody Gonzalez, Helene Harney, Sheryl Howard, Sharone Kaplan, Adrienne Sanders, Steve Stevens, Denise Szydelko and Regine Theodule.

View a video on the next generation of METRIQ, web-based and Software-as-a-Service.