A multimodal analysis of resource allocation across U.S. cancer registries

Maggie Cole-Beebe, Florence K.L. Tangka, Jenny Beizer, Amarilys Bernacet, Stephen Brown, Paran Pordell, Reda Wilson, Sandy Jones and Sujha Subramanian

Evaluation and Program Planning, 2025, vol. 112, issue C

Abstract: This study assessed resource allocation among registry activities, which may provide insight for efficient collection of high-quality cancer incidence data. We used a multimodal approach and purposively sampled 21 participating population-based cancer registries in the United States to ensure variation across several registries. The registries reported prospective staffing data and retrospective costing data, completing data collection from October 2021 to September 2022, reporting retrospective costing data for July 1, 2020, through June 30, 2021. From lessons learned from prior studies, we engaged participating registries early and throughout the study, ensuring the collection of meaningful, accurate quantitative data, as well as insights not captured quantitatively. Case volume is a major driver of registry costs. (On average, high-volume registries outspend low-volume registries by nearly 3x, annually). Upon examination of registry activities by case volume, we found that the two most resource-intensive registry activities are data acquisition and data processing, which may be addressed by innovations, such as electronic reporting and automation. Innovative data transfer and processing approaches could increase timeliness of data collection and reduce the labor resources required to process manually collected data. Registries adopting these innovations might achieve cost savings, which could make resources available to support other registry activities.

Keywords: cancer; cancer registry; National Program of Cancer Registries; NPCR; registry activities; activity-based cost; electronic reporting; registry staffing; efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149718925001065
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:epplan:v:112:y:2025:i:c:s0149718925001065

DOI: 10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2025.102639

Access Statistics for this article

Evaluation and Program Planning is currently edited by Jonathan A. Morell

More articles in Evaluation and Program Planning from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().