From Surveillance to Prevention: Leveraging Cancer Registry Infrastructure to Improve Access to Screening Data

Abstract

Increasing cancer screening rates is a public health priority. Currently, cancer screening rates remain below target levels. Primary care providers (PCPs) play a key role in ordering preventive cancer screenings, such as colonoscopies and mammograms, yet many PCPs lack access to complete patient records. A lack of electronic health record (EHR) interoperability means that procedures completed outside the healthcare system are often missing from the EHR. This thesis evaluated whether existing cancer registry infrastructure, such as the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program (SEER) could support provider-accessible preventive screening systems through comparison with the Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System (CURES), CanScreen5, and the Florida pilot project. Because SEER is structured for de-identified population level data, models such as CURES and CanScreen5 are more legally and structurally feasible in supporting a provider-accessible preventive screening data base. Future pilot programs should focus on a provider-accessible registry or organized cancer screening system.