Steven Peace is the Senior Manager for Research Support for the Florida Cancer Data System (FCDS) at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. FCDS is Florida’s statewide population-based cancer surveillance system. Mr. Peace is responsible for the FCDS Data Quality Program as well as the FCDS Education and Training Program.
Steve is a nationally recognized expert in his field and a dedicated CTR with more than 30 years’ experience in health information management systems, disease classification systems, medical coding systems, the Multiple Primary and Histology Coding Rules for both Solid Tumors and the Hematopoietic and Lymphoid Neoplasms, and the Collaborative Stage Data Collection System. Steve is most recognized as a professional educator and cancer registry trainer who enjoys introducing new concepts, methodologies, coding rules, and management tools to professional audiences.
Q&A with Steve:
Q: What is the best advice you can give to registrars at this time as we transition from Collaborative Stage to assigning TNM?
A: My recommendations to registrars regarding transition from CS back to AJCC TNM and SEER Summary Stage are: to stay informed with the CS Transition Newsletter; don’t be so bold as to think that even if you have many years of personal experience that your experience excludes you from any new training being offered by AJCC and other experts in TNM Staging; build in time for training (for you and your staff); remember that exceptional data quality is and will continue to be one of our primary goals at the hospital registry, at the state and central cancer registry and for our national data repositories (SEER, NPCR, NAACCR, and NCDB); and finally, that we are all transitioning together and that we are on track for the implementation the AJCC TNM 8th edition and an updated SEER Summary Stage in the next couple of years.so, stay tuned.
Q: Is the FCDS Newsletter available to CTRs outside of Florida?
A: The FCDS Memo is available on the FCDS Website under the Publications Tab @ http://fcds.med.miami.edu/inc/publications.shtml.