Our Cancer Center Showcase series continues this month with OU Health located in Oklahoma City, OK. The Oklahoma University Medical Center Cancer Registry was started in 1972 and since that time the health system has gone through a variety of expansions and integrations. Currently, OU Health is comprised of OU Medical Center, Children’s Hospital, OU Physicians, OU Children’s Physicians, the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine and the Peggy and Charles Stephenson Oklahoma Cancer Center.

Nancy Etzold, CTR, is the Director of the Cancer Registry which consists of eleven employees, all who are employees of the health system. Prior to Nancy’s management of the registry, contracting services were used. Accuracy and timeliness suffered so in 2017, the registry transitioned to staff registrars. Currently, all registry staff works remotely with only the rectal cancer coordinator and Nancy working on campus. The registry accessions 4,800 total annual cases – 3,600 are analytic and 1,200 are non-analytic. However, the registry abstracts a full abstract for each non-analytic case, as they see a large volume of cases for disease progression and recurrences.

OU Health has been CoC accredited since 1972. The OU Breast Institute is NAPBC accredited, and they are currently working on a system-wide consolidation for the 2024 NAPBC survey. The health system is working towards NAPRC accreditation with a goal of becoming accredited with the 2022 survey. The Stephenson Cancer Center of OU Health has been NCI designated since 2018 and is ranked #1 in the country for accruing 80% of patients to clinical trials.

OU Health currently hosts fifteen weekly tumor boards: Bone and Soft Tissue, Urinary, Neuro, GI, Rectal, Liver, Breast, Malignant Hematopoietic, Thoracic, Head and Neck, GYN, Pediatric Solid Tumors, Pediatric Hematopoietic, Skull and Molecular. Each tumor board is run by a Nurse Navigator or APRN. The registry maintains all CoC accreditation documentation and all OU Health cancer patients are presented at tumor boards at least once.

When the cancer registry transitioned to an OU Health staffed registry, data timeliness and accuracy improved significantly. Data requests for registry information increased from zero requests in 2017 to 200 in 2021. Registry data is now being requested by administrators, physicians, researchers, as well as community partners. During 2021, registry data was used in fifteen different research projects and five publications.

OU Health is in the process of integrating multiple EMR’s. Currently, the registry imports data daily from pathology into CRStar, the EMR Disease index, as well as from an external EMR source monthly. These imports greatly improved casefinding accuracy and timeliness and reduced review and additional data entry. The goal for 2023, after Epic is fully implemented, is to work with CRStar and fully automate these processes to further increase both productivity and efficiency.

Nancy is extremely proud of the registry staff and the progress they have made in the last few years. The registry hosts practical internships and provides training to non-credentialed staff. In addition, over the years they have “home grown” six CTRs!

Nancy would like to thank the OU “Data Divas” for their exceptional expertise and teamwork: Ambir Byrd, CTR; Barbara Denton, CTR; Britney Hedrick; Carrie Lopez, CTR; Dorothy Loughran, CTR; Elaine Bomberger-Schmotzer, CTR; Leena Verghese, CTR; Linda Rang, CTR; Moriah Polanco, CTR; and Noreen Brown, CTR. They truly are the dream team!