The Good, the Bad, the Ugly…and the Even Better of Rapid Abstracting

With the ever increasing and welcome demand for our cancer registry data at Moffitt Cancer Center (an National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center), the traditional cancer registry model of abstracting 4 to 6 months after date of first contact became more and more of a hindrance to the mutual goals and vision for use of our data. We set a goal of utilizing the American College of Surgeon's Rapid Quality Reporting System and we knew that, to use the functionality of that system to improve patient timelines for treatment, we would need to rapidly abstract all our analytic breast and colorectal cases. Rapid abstracting is the method whereby all diagnostic, surgical, and staging information must be gathered in order to complete the first half of the abstract 4 to 6 weeks from date of first contact.