Using Social Media to Promote the Role of a Cancer Registrar

How many times do you get asked what a cancer registrar is and do your family and friends know what you do? I participated in the Lymphoma and Leukemia Society Light the Night walk with my family. This event raises funds for life saving research and services for patients and families impacted by this disease. I was approached by a friend who commented I know you work in the field of oncology, but I still do not know what you do. So, I decided to create a short video to promote my role as a cancer registrar certified oncology data specialist on how data is collected and utilized by state and federal agencies.

What Does an Oncology Data Specialist do?

Cancer registrars are data information specialists trained to collect the complete history, diagnosis, treatment, and health status for every cancer patient in the U.S. The data provides essential information to researchers, healthcare providers, and public health officials. The data collected helps to monitor outcomes from treatments, conduct research, and improve cancer prevention and screening programs. A cancer registrar can work at hospital level, state, or federal cancer registries including provincial and territorial Canadian registries. The information we collect is reported, by law, to state and federal government agencies.

Promoting the Role of a Cancer Registrar on Social Media

I shared a video on my social media profile via TikTok, FACEBOOK and Instagram. The purpose of posting was to educate my family, friends and individuals about the cancer registry profession and the purpose of why we collect cancer incidence and report data.

In the video, I briefly discuss my current role as a quality control coordinator in a population-based registry, cancer registration as a career path, and the ability to work remotely in this profession. I highlighted that cancer registrars collect cancer statistics, that the data collected allows physicians to determine the best standard of care for cancer patients, and that it helps public health officials learn where clusters of cancer diagnoses are located.

“I’m an Oncology Data Specialist (Cancer Registrar)”

I utilized the NCRA Cancer Registrars Elevator Speech in my video, titled, “I’m an Oncology Data Specialist (Cancer Registrar)”: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8FMAW88/. It has been viewed so far by 1,597 individuals on TikTok platform, received 60 likes, and 16 viewers have added my video as a favorite video.

Below are comments received:

• Could you do a Day in Life video?
• How is work life balance?
• How do you become a cancer registrar?
• I work in cancer department, would like to become a cancer registrar.
• Thank you for educating us on being a cancer registrar, I have seen a few jobs posted and wondered what that entailed.
• I love this, very informative.
• You’re one of the shining stars in our profession.

Here is the NCRA website link on how to become a cancer registrar that is shared on my profile: https://www.ncra-usa.org/About/Become-a-Cancer-Registrar.

There is a lot of interest in our profession and utilizing social media platforms are innovative ways to promote the role of cancer registrars, importance of data collection and career paths in this profession.