Impact Patient Care as a Certified Tumor Registrar

The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) and NCRA collaborated to bring you web based learning to enhance learning opportunities for burgeoning cancer registrars, and to help students become eligible to sit for NCRA's Certified Tumor Registrar (CTR) certification* exam. It’s important to know that just last year (2015), facilities accredited by the Commission on Cancer (COC) require all cancer case abstracting be performed by a CTR.

Develop Skills in a Respected, High-Tech Profession

Cancer registrars are data information specialists who capture a complete history, diagnosis, treatment, and health status for every cancer patient in the US. The data provide essential information to researchers, healthcare providers, and public health officials to better monitor and advance cancer treatments, conduct research, and improve cancer prevention and screening programs.

Cancer registrars manage and analyze clinical cancer data. Responsibilities include:

• Collecting, maintaining, and reporting cancer data for surveillance and research
• Ensuring data quality and compliance with state and federal reporting standards
• Preparing reports and data analysis for physicians and administrators
• Monitoring patient treatment and outcomes
• Managing national accreditation standards

• CRM Program Benefits
• CTR Certification*
• Register for CRM

Study Online to Become a Certified Tumor Registrar (CTR)

The NCRA AHIMA Cancer Registry Management (CRM) Program is an NCRA-Accredited Formal Education Certificate program. The web-based 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 AHIMA’s Cancer Registry Management program will be able to:

• 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

Earn the CTR Credential from NCRA

The Certified Tumor Registrar (CTR) credential demonstrates a requisite knowledge and professional competence needed within the cancer registry. It is nationally recognized in the recruitment and retention of registry personnel. NCRA’s certification board—the Council on Certification—develops and administers the CTR exam.

NCRA’s Council on Certification offers three eligibility routes to take the CTR Exam.

For information on the CTR Exam, including details on upcoming exam dates, eligibility routes, and to download the CTR Exam Handbook & Application, visit ctrexam.org.

Students may purchase CRM courses through the AHIMA webstore.

The Cancer Registry Management program is a series of online courses designed for individuals interested in cancer registry. Cancer registrars possess the clinical and technical knowledge and skills necessary to maintain components of the disease-related data collection systems consistent with medical, administrative, ethical, legal, and accreditation requirements of the health care delivery system.

Cancer Registry Management (CRM) students must have a minimum of an associate’s degree or its equivalent (60 credit hours) before beginning the CRM program. In addition the CRM program requires the completion of four prerequisite courses. The four prerequisite courses can be taken with AHIMA and are available for purchase on the AHIMA webstore.

Anatomy, Physiology and Human Disease

This course provides an overview to the anatomical structures and physiology of the human body. Each body system is discussed in terms of the major anatomical structures and function including how each system participates in homeostasis of the body. In addition, the course discusses selected major pathologies, including disease definitions and causes, signs and symptoms, diagnostic procedures, and possible treatments. Finally, the course discusses common issues and changes that occur in each body system through the life span.

Computer Basics in Healthcare

This course offers a general overview of computers and the Internet and the role each has played in healthcare and will play in the future. Students will learn the basics of hardware and software and will gain a general understanding of the most commonly used applications. Online tools used by AHIMA, such as the Communities of Practice and the Body of Knowledge, will be explored, as well as the various applications used in the teaching of online courses.

Medical Terminology

This course covers medical terminology, symbols and abbreviations, and the application of this new language in the field of healthcare. While terms are covered as they relate to body structure and function, the main focus is on medical vocabulary and being able to construct terms using word parts such as roots, suffixes, and prefixes.

Pathophysiology/Pharmacology

This course emphasizes the disease processes affecting the human body via an integrated approach to specific disease entities including the study of causes, diagnosis and treatment of disease, and an understanding of the basic principles of pharmacology.

AHIMA’s Cancer Registry Management program consists of six (6) specialty courses. 

Once a student launches a course, it is open to the student for 365 days.  We recommend that students take one CRM specialty course at a time and in the order they are presented. The courses are built on degree of difficulty, which means, learning from courses one through three is necessary in order to successfully complete course four.  Courses are broken down into modules, and modules are broken down into lessons. Students should expect to spend at least two to three hours per week, per lesson.

Registration Options:

Note: Required textbooks are not included with course registration, and must be purchased separately.