Impact Patient Care as an ODS-Certified Cancer Registrar

AHIMA and the National Cancer Registrars Association (NCRA) collaborated to create online learning to enhance opportunities for burgeoning cancer registrars, and to help students become eligible to sit for NCRA's Oncology Data Specialist (ODS) certification exam. Facilities accredited by the Commission on Cancer (CoC) require all cancer case abstracting to be performed by an ODS-certified cancer registrar.

Study Online to Become an ODS-Certified Cancer Registrar

The NCRA-AHIMA Cancer Registry Management (CRM) Program is an NCRA-Accredited Formal Education Certificate program. The online program allows students to tailor training based on their schedules and offers online support for content-related and technical questions. Aspiring cancer registrars can complete the full program for a structured and thorough introduction to the profession. Current healthcare practitioners can obtain the education needed to include cancer registry among their skills.

Upon completion of the program, a graduate of the NCRA-AHIMA Cancer Registry Management Program can:

• Accurately abstract health information into a cancer registry to allow for uniform data collection
• Manage an effective cancer registry program at a local, state, or national level
• Produce cancer-related information to assist healthcare providers in patient care and research
• Provide information for cancer prevention activities

The complete CRM program consists of the following 10 courses.

Four prerequisites from AHIMA’s Medical Coding and Reimbursement Online series are required:

• Introduction to Healthcare Technology and Information Systems
• Anatomy and Physiology
• Medical Terminology
• Pathophysiology and Pharmacology

Each of the six Cancer Registry Management specialty courses builds on the last. It is therefore strongly recommended that they are taken in the following order:

1. Cancer Registry Structure and Management
2. Cancer Registry Operations
3. Cancer Disease Coding and Staging
4. Oncology Treatment and Coding
5. Follow-Up, Data Quality, and Utilization
6. Abstracting Methods

Advancements in how cancer is diagnosed and treated require the courses to be updated frequently – it is recommended that these courses are completed within a 12-month period. A practicum is the final step of the program, providing you with the opportunity to apply learning in live and/or virtual situations. The six specialty courses listed above must be completed before beginning the practicum.

View the AHIMA Store for the complete library

Under the “Categories” navigation options, see the “Cancer Registry Management” link.