For the 18th successive year, the Illinois State Cancer Registry earned “gold” certification from the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries, the state public health department announced recently.
Only registries meeting highest standards earn the award. Gov. Bruce Rauner praised the agency’s work in compiling data thoroughly and precisely. Nirav Shah, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), echoed Rauner’s congratulations.
“Illinois is nationally recognized to have one of the best systems in the country for collecting cancer data and I would like to thank the cancer registrars from hospitals throughout the state as well as the Illinois State Cancer Registry staff for their contributions toward achieving gold certification,” Shah said.
As well as re-earning its long-time gold ranking, the state registry also recently scored kudos from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Program of Cancer Registries, dubbed as a Registry of Excellence.
“Illinois residents should be confident in the accuracy and completeness of cancer data that can help us understand the burden of cancer in Illinois and target our prevention and treatment efforts,” Shah stated.
Maintained by the IDPH, the Illinois State Cancer Registry is the sole resource for population-based incidence records in the Prairie State. Its work is key to both monitoring and research both on the state and federal levels, accounting by statistical, demographic and other information categories.