Seer*Abs 10 Users Manual March 2017 Table of Contents

Staging Lookups

Two Staging frameworks are currently supported: Collaborative Stage (for 2004-2015 cases) and TNM direct assignment (for 2016+ cases). The framework to use is determined by the application based on the diagnosis year. The suffix “[CS]” or “[TNM]” is displayed on the data entry form after the schema name.

The default data entry form contains the 25 site-specific factor fields with their corresponding lookups, although the fields are hidden by default, until a site and histology are provided allowing the determination of a valid staging schema.

Once a valid schema is provided (for example LipLower for C001/8000), the SEER required factors are displayed and the labels are dynamically update:

The labels starting with [REQ] are the SEER required site-specific factors for that particular schema, you may use the “Show All Factors” button to display all the fields.

The content of the lookups change dynamically depending on the schema:

The following features are displayed in the Staging lookups:

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  Search box. You may search on the code or any text in the table. To select a value once you have completed your search:
  
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    If you have entered a valid code in the search box, press Enter. Text in the search box will be copied into the field (do not use enter if you type descriptive search text instead of a code).
    
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    To move your cursor to the table, press Ctrl + Down. You can then scroll through the table entries. Press enter to select.
    
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    All shortcuts can be displayed by pressing Ctrl+Shift+T.
    
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  The site and histology, staging, field name, and field description:
  
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    Site and histology – In the site-specific Staging lookup, the site and histology are displayed in the title bar of the popup.
    
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    Schema – The staging schema name is displayed as a title in the lookups. In the example above, “Lip, Lower (excluding Malignant Melanoma)” is the schema.
    
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    Field name and description – In the example above, the name is CS Site-Specific Factor 1 and the description is ‘Size of Lymph Nodes’. The field names and descriptions of the taging fields are returned by the staging library and are not configurable. Descriptions are not available for all staging fields.
    
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  A section with the code and corresponding description; and a separate section of notes. You may use the icons at the top right of the window or keyboard shortcuts to control the display:
  
  
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    To hide notes: Use the rightmost icon that shows the right side of a book or press Ctrl + Right Arrow.
    
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    To show both notes and codes side-by-side: Use the middle “open book” icon or press Ctrl + Up Arrow.
    
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    To show notes only: Use the leftmost icon that shows the left side of a book or press Ctrl + Left Arrow.
    
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    You may also drag the center bar to adjust the size.
    

The default behavior of the Staging lookups can be customized in the User Preferences dialog.

10. Site-specific surgery lookup

Some fields might also be attached to a special site-specific surgery lookup. Like the Staging lookups, its content is dynamically created once a valid site and histology have been provided.

The features of the Site-specific Surgery lookup are identical to one for the Staging lookups. Note that this lookup contains empty lines and comment lines (in blue); those cannot be double-clicked to assign a value to the corresponding field (since they do not correspond to any value).

The default behavior of the Site-specific Surgery lookup can be customized in the User Preferences dialog.

11. Edits to Validate Data

Registry-defined edits, system edits, and edit packages such as the SEER Edits may be used to validate fields while entering data. Failing edits do not prevent the record from being saved, completed, or closed. When a field triggers an edit, the field is shown in red and the edit failure message is shown in the status bar if the field is focused. The error message will also be displayed if you place your mouse over the field. Only one message is displayed if multiple edits are failing for the field. All edits failing on the record are shown in the failing edits tables at the bottom of the screen (the Show Errors button toggles the display of the table; by default it is not displayed).

There are two types of edits, internal system edits and edits defined in the configuration files.

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  System Edits: Indicates that the value does not conform to database or system rules. For example, the value may be an incorrect data type for the field (a letter in a numeric field) or the value may not be in the field’s lookup. Configuration settings determine whether a field can have a value that is not in the lookup. If a system edit fails, SEER*Abs will beep and not move your cursor forward (correct the value or press Tab a second time to move forward). Examples of system edits:
  
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    a numeric field contains characters that are not digits
    
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    a Boolean field contains a value other than “0” or “1”
    
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    a date field is not in the “mm/dd/yyyy” format
    
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    a field contains a physician or facility ID that does not exist in the SEER*Abs physician or facility lists.
    
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    a field associated with a lookup contains a value that is not in the lookup table (and the configuration for the field requires a value in the lookup)
    
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  Edits included in your registry’s configuration: These include edits defined by registry staff, SEER Edits, and other edit packages that may be integrated into SEER*Abs. SEER Edits are distributed with SEER*Abs, but are turned off in the default configuration.
  

A field is highlighted in dark red if it fails a system edit. A lighter shade of red is used for fields failing configuration edit. The following screenshot shows a system edit failing on the field “Race 4” because the value “XX” is not in its lookup; and a SEER*Abs edit failing for the Maiden name, notice how the sex field is also in red because both fields are involved in the edit.

To view a list of all edits failing for the record, click Toggle Errors View button. This button is a toggle to show or hide the error panel at the bottom of the screen. The error panel shows the Edit ID, Name (not all edits have a name), Group, and Message for each edit that is failing. Double-click a row to open the Edit Information dialog for that particular edit.

The number of edits failing in the record is displayed on the right side of the status bar. If your record layout uses a tabbed interface, the number of fields failing edits is shown next to the tab name. In the example, 3 fields are related to failing edits. Maiden name and sex are related to EDIT-001; and Race 4 is related to the Field ‘race4’ edit. In this example, there are 3 fields related to 2 edits that are failing for the record.

To view more information about a failing edit:

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  Use the Ctrl+P shortcut
  
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  Right-click on the field to bring up the contextual menu and select the View Failing Edit Info option
  
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  If the failing edits are displayed at the bottom of the page, you can double-click a given row.
  

The Edit Information dialog shows the documentation for the current edit; it also contains other data like the edit’s history, code, dependencies, etc… The following screenshot shows the documentation of a SEER edit, pure SEER*Abs edits usually have less documentation available.

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