214799 Impact of electronic health records usage on a cancer registry system

Monday, November 8, 2010

Shannon H. Houser, PhD , Department of Health Services Administration, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL
Shannon H. Colquitt , Health Information Management Program, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Opelika, AL
Background: State-based cancer registries are systems that systematically collect, manage, and analyze data from cancer cases and deaths. The National Program of Cancer Registries collects data on the occurrence of cancer, type, extent, location and initial treatment. Current electronic health records (EHRs) implementation may create both positive and negative impacts to cancer registries, such as policies and regulations, data quality, reporting, and management, staffing and training issues.

Objectives: Assess: 1) status of EHR usage on cancer registries; 2) impact of EHR on cancer registries; 3) benefits and challenges of EHR usage for cancer registries.

Methods: A self-completed survey was distributed to 60 certified cancer registrars during the Alabama Cancer Registry Association annual meeting in October 2009. 43 surveys were returned (71% response rate). A 5-point Likert scale and descriptive analysis were used for assessing the impacts, benefits and challenges of EHR use in cancer registries.

Results: Respondents represent 11 counties, 25 health facilities in Alabama, and 47% reported using EHR in their cancer registry. The top three impacts of EHR usage on cancer registries include fulfilling the need to share the patient information among healthcare professionals, improved quality in data documentation, and improved clinical process or workflow efficiency. The top three benefits include allowing more time for retrieving and analyzing data for clinicians and researchers, providing more complete treatment information to clinicians and researchers, helping to improve the completeness, accuracy, timeliness of the registry with better tracking of patient follow up. The top three challenges include lack of adequate resources, lack of medical staff support, and more challenging to achieve with changing data standards.

Discussion: EHR usage in healthcare facilities unavoidably created positive and negative impacts on cancer registries. Understanding these impacts and challenges has implications for public health data management and data reporting issues, and thus policy intervention.

Learning Areas:
Communication and informatics

Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of the session, the audience will be able to: Identify impacts of electronic health records usage on cancer registry systems. Assess challenges and benefits associated with electronic health records usage for cancer registries. Discuss implications of the barriers and facilitate policy interventions.

Keywords: Health Information, Cancer

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am an associate professor and I have been overseeing the data collection, and manuscript writing of this project.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 3368.3: Use of Informatics and Information Technology in Different Settings