January 2002
Highlights for the month:
CoC March Workshop Canceled
The year 2003 will usher in many important changes related to the CoC's standards, "ROADS," and the AJCC Collaborative Stage and TNM staging. For this reason, the CoC has decided that it would be more beneficial to our course participants to wait until these changes are finalized and nearing implementation before we continue any further instructional courses. While we still plan to offer instructional presentations of these changes during the NCRA meeting, we will postpone more complete educational courses until a later date. The CoC will contact those who have already registered for the March workshop, and a full refund will be provided. If you have any questions regarding the refund, please contact Mary Ann Marts at mmarts@facs.org.
Highlights
FIPS Update
The CoC would like to thank the facilities that have reviewed and released their Facility Information Profile System (FIPS) data. We appreciate your commitment to community outreach and the College's mission to provide more consumer-based education. Cancer registrars, cancer committee chairs and cancer liaison physicians at each program have access to FIPS via CoC Datalinks - a secure location on the American College of Surgeons (ACoS) Web site found at http://www.facs.org/dept/cancer/index.html. Registrars have been asked to review and update FIPS with staff information, medical oncology services, diagnostic imaging services, radiation oncology services, support programs, facility participation in clinical trials, and other services offered either at the facility or by referral.
Once FIPS data is reviewed and accepted by a facility, the CoC shares this information with the American Cancer Society (ACS). In the upcoming weeks, those facilities that agreed to participate in the program can find their facility information in the CoC Hospital Locator section of the American Cancer Society Web site, www.cancer.org. To date, 514 facilities have released the Resources and Services section to the ACS, while 222 facilities have released their annual caseload data. CoC staff are working to increase these numbers and encourage participation.
Because one of our goals is to provide an excellent opportunity for CoC-Approved Cancer Programs to make their services known to consumers, we are pleased to announce that for last quarter, the ACS reported that the CoC Hospital Locator received an average of 738 hits per month, translating into approximately 1,214 visitor sessions.
Highlights
Update on Revised Data Standards
The Commission on Cancer is in the final stages of completing its new publication (yet untitled) that will replace "Standards of the Commission on Cancer, Volume II: ROADS." The preliminary roll-out schedule for this publication is as follows: May 2002-the development of training programs will be completed; June 2002—conversion tools will be completed; July 2002—the new publication will be available; and January 2003—the CoC will require the implementation of data items and coding rules documented in the new publication for all reportable cases.
Highlights
No PCEs until 2003
The CoC will not be conducting any site-specific PCE studies for the year 2002. The Commission has instead elected to focus its efforts on the release of the new publication (yet untitled) that will replace "Standards of the Commission on Cancer, Volume II: ROADS." Beginning in 2003, PCE studies will examine patterns and quality of care, and study objectives will be based on a specific hypothesis. Statistical sampling techniques will be employed to allow for a sufficient number of cases to be collected in order address the objectives of each study and limit the caseload burden for participating facilities. This new approach will reduce the amount of time required to collect data from participating facilities and facilitate a quicker turn-around time with respect to reporting aggregated results.
Highlights
CoC Welcomes New Members
The Commission on Cancer is a consortium of professional organizations dedicated to reducing the morbidity and mortality of cancer through education, standard-setting, and the monitoring of quality. Commission membership is comprised of 99 individuals who are either surgeons representing the American College of Surgeons (ACoS) or representatives from the 37 national, professional organizations affiliated with the CoC. We would like to welcome the 18 new members appointed in October 2001—six representing the ACoS and 12 representing national, professional organizations.
Highlights
New State Chairs Announced
We are pleased to announce and welcome our new Cancer Liaison Program state chairs who were appointed within the last six months of 2001. State chairs serve as state contacts for Commission activities. A complete list of the state chairs and specific ways that they can provide assistance to state cancer activities is available on our Web site at http://www.facs.org/dept/cancer/coc/statecontact.html.
Highlights
Collaborative Stage Educational Activities
During the past 18 months, members of the Collaborative Stage Task Force have been busy making 47 presentations in 31 states. The 45-minute slide presentation depicts the status of the project, the components of the collaborative stage data set, and its use. So far, more than 1,759 cancer registrars have received training on the basic concepts of the Collaborative Stage data collection system which will be implemented in 2003.
In 2002, the presentations will focus on hands-on case exercises to demonstrate how the Collaborative Stage codes are applied and how the subsequent stage is derived for various staging systems. In addition to these presentations, the AJCC will be providing instructional sessions at the NCRA and NAACCR annual meetings, and will conduct two video conferences later in the year. Web modules and a self-instructional manual are planned for 2003. The design of our upcoming educational formats is based on feedback from registrars who attended the presentations at association meetings over the past 18 months.
Organizations interested in securing a speaker for the Collaborative Stage presentation should contact Susan Burkhardt at 312/202-5313 or sburkhardt@facs.org. Beginning in 2002, organizations will be required to pay the speaker's travel expenses.
Highlights
To Subscribe to CoC Flash
CoC Flash is e-mailed automatically each month to individuals for whom the Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons has an e-mail address. If you wish to continue to receive the newsletter on a monthly basis, you need do nothing. You can discontinue your subscription by writing to coc@facs.org and requesting that your name be deleted from the database. Individuals not currently receiving the newsletter may subscribe to the publication by sending an e-mail containing your name, address, telephone and fax numbers to coc@facs.org, and asking to be added to our electronic distribution database.
To Submit Information
CoC Flash will accept submissions received by the third week of each month. However, the CoC reserves the right to decide whether or not the materials are appropriate for inclusion. Information for CoC Flash should be timely, newsworthy, brief, and of use and interest to the constituents of the Commission, which include cancer registrars, liaison physicians, cancer committee chairs, and other cancer-oriented health care professionals. To submit material, send it to coc@facs.org.
The Commission on Cancer is a consortium of professional organizations dedicated to reducing the morbidity and mortality of cancer through education, standard setting, and the monitoring of quality care. CoC Flash is a monthly news service for constituents of the CoC provided by the Commission and the Cancer Program of the American College of Surgeon.
CoC Flash
Commission on Cancer
