Recap of the Texas Tumor Registrars Association (TxTRA)
45th Annual Education Conference
October 4-6, 2017
The 45th annual Texas Tumor Registrars Association educational conference was held on October 4th through the 6th in Grapevine, Texas at Great Wolf Lodge.
The conference was started off with our very own Carla Edwards, CTR, Vice President of Registry Operations at Registry Partners, who presented a session called “Efficient Abstracting”; she showed the attendees how small improvements can have a big impact on efficiency.
Following Carla was another speaker from Registry Partners, Suzzane Gomez, RRT, CTR, Project and Quality Control Manager, whose presentation, “Getting Under the Skin – Melanoma Staging”, identified the key components for staging Melanoma cases and gave us a look at the upcoming 2018 changes.
Additional presentations the first day of the conference included updates from the Texas Cancer Registry, Changes in NAPBC Standards, NCRA Updates, and American Cancer Society Patient Related Services. The Keynote speaker, Ann Sattar, brought some fun and interesting discovery on understanding ourselves and others with her “Communicate with Professional Style” presentation.
The second day of the conference started off with a presentation by Dr. Chad Amosson on “Radiation Therapy for Health Care Professionals” which provided a much better understanding of various modalities of radiation therapy; then our very own Crystal McDaniel, CTR, Vice President of Accreditation Services and Carla Edwards, CTR, Vice President of Registry Operations presented “Tips for the Cancer Registrars Role in Patient Outcome Standards”, specifically Standards 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, and 4.7. Significant information was shared to help identify examples of study documentation and methodologies, ways to use analysis processes to create quality improvements, and to determine structure needed for studying the root cause of a study problem.
Additionally on the second day of the conference there were multiple topics presented that included Breast Cancer and 8th Edition Staging, Gastric Cancer Management, Staging, and Abstracting, and Dr. DeEtte Vasques’ discussion on the impact of obesity on cancer, life, and the economy.
The final day of the conference included discussions on AJCC 8th Edition updates and Pediatric vs. Adult Tumor Registries and Abstracting. Ending the day were Dr. Himalaya Lele, who discussed “Lung Cancer Management and 8th Edition Staging”, and a second presentation by Registry Partners’ Suzzane Gomez who presented “Breathe Easy, the Ins and Outs of Lung Abstracting”.
Registry Partners was excited to raffle two Visa Gift Cards during the conference and the fortunate winners were Renarda Whitehead (left) and Aracelis Reyes (right) with Crystal McDaniel (RPI).
Pictured below (left to right) Suzzane Gomez, Crystal McDaniel & Carla Edwards
