ASO Author Reflections: The Commission on Cancer’s Role in Quality Procedures that Govern the National Cancer Database

Excerpt

The American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer (CoC) has been committed to monitoring cancer practices and improving outcomes since the first cancer registry was established in 1921 by Ernest Amory Codman, M.D., F.A.C.S. Since inception, efforts to enhance the value and utility of the cancer registry have come in the form of standardizing registry definitions, abstraction, and reporting. Since 1988, improvements in the timeliness and accessibility of cancer data has come in the form of registry computerization (i.e., the National Cancer Database; NCDB). Thanks to these efforts, NCDB data not only helps national investigators follow long-term outcomes and longitudinal trends, but also provides hospitals and practitioners with timely reports in support of data-driven practices and quality improvement efforts. Using NCDB to monitor and improve quality of care demands periodic assessment of NCDB data quality. A framework developed by Bray and Parkin is applied to measure NCDB performance and quality.^1,2 …