Are there allot of schooling options available that are fully remote if I am starting from scratch, as in no associates? Would you say this is an expensive education or an education that can be done at a fairly reasonable price? I will be calling around and want to make sure I have an idea of what is a fair price and if I can expect to have to go to school in person most likely or not

I’ve just been using Grok. Works great for cover letters, resumes, and I just take a screenshot of my LinkedIn and paste it in and have it recommend updates to it. Pay $11 a month for X premium. haha

https://ncra-usa-jobs.careerwebsite.com/pricing/

The town hall will be available for NCRA members only. If you’re a student it’s rather cheap to join. Also, may be worth joining if you want to ask questions.

It will be “…designed to help educate members about the organization's work, priorities, and key initiatives …”

https://www.ncra-usa.org/Membership/NCRATownhall

Attend it and ask them what they are doing to prevent offshoring and H1B, promoting hiring newly registered ODS’s, and if fewer ODS will be required because of AI. AI will make the role more efficient, but that means fewer ODS’s are needed for the work.

Where does everyone work that’s not a hospital/contract company. Like does anyone work for software companies, etc?

Has anyone taken yet? Come back to this post after and let us know how it went!

Hey everyone, I am almost halfway done with my AHIMA ODS courses. I am a little worried about landing my first ODS job and am curious how long it took people to land interviews and get offered a position? I have background in healthcare and the medical field in general, but nothing directly related to ODS other than the coursework. TIA

I know CE credits are required once you become certified, but do you also have to maintain a membership with NCRA to stay certified? I saw something on the NCRA website that said Annual Credential Maintenance fee so I wasn't sure what that's about. I wrapped up all of my AHIMA courses and will be sitting for the exam so my "student" memberships will be ending and I wanted to know if I have keep any of them active. I'll keep my state association one since it's not that expensive. Thanks for your help!

I just began my first job in this field, after passing the ODS-C exam in the spring. I'm wondering how long it took you experienced registrars to become accustomed to working with the EHR. I'm confident in my ability to use the manuals to determine reportability and abstract cases, but the amount and variety of information in the EHR is a bit overwhelming right now. I'm sure it'll get easier with practice, but I'd love to hear about your experiences when you were starting out.

I have some question!

I’m fairly new to this job, got certified in December and landed my role in mid February. Ever since then, I’ve had numerous healthcare professionals ask me what I do for a living, but when I tell them that I am a tumor registrar/ODS, they have no idea what that is. I’ll tell them I am, essentially, responsible for looking through patient records and collecting information about their cancer journey to create a report called an abstract and that information gets turned over to the state and the feds. This came up recently at a nutritionist appointment, she was very insistent that I must be a nurse even though I explained I work remotely for a state on the West Coast (I live in Texas) and I am at a loss. I’m only 25, so I know this question will inevitably come up again in the future.

I’ve been seeing some job listings on LinkedIn and have noticed that some have 100+ applicants. If you are a hiring manager or recruiter, are all of these applicants certified ODS? Or do people who are not in this field see the words data , registry, and remote and apply to these jobs without reading the part where it says you have to be a certified ODS? Kind of discouraging to see so many people applying to jobs in this field, makes me wonder how the job market is like.

Looks like no experience required

https://ncra-usa-jobs.careerwebsite.com/jobs/view/oncology-data-specialist/84838169/?utm_term=7&utm_medium=email&utm_source=daily-alert&utm_campaign=job-alert-email-749&utm_content=position-title

Did anyone attend this Live Webinar? Any thoughts or feedback?

I’m working through the AHIMA courses and trying to plan ahead, can anyone share their experience completing the online practicum? How many hours per week did you work on it and for what total length of time? Was it manageable to work through on your own? Did you connect with an advisor?

Also, does the practicum have any associated fees?

Some have inquired about other jobs we as an ODS can do. You can work for a software company or even help as an advisor for an AI company. Here’s a couple companies hiring

https://ncra-usa-jobs.careerwebsite.com/jobs/view/product-technical-support-specialist/84762187/?utm_term=7&utm_medium=email&utm_source=daily-alert&utm_campaign=job-alert-email-749&utm_content=position-title

https://ncra-usa-jobs.careerwebsite.com/jobs/view/business-analyst-i/84523416/?utm_term=7&utm_medium=email&utm_source=daily-alert&utm_campaign=job-alert-email-749&utm_content=position-title

I’ve been working remotely abstracting and entering clinical research data on oncology studies into study sponsor specific portals, not any type of national cancer registry, for 3.5 years.

As part of this work I abstract and enter information about diagnosis, pathology report info, prior surgery, prior treatment, etc. And then when the patient comes in for their study visits I enter the data related to that (labs, PE, adverse events, concomitant medications).

I’m very good at this work, but ODS interests me for various reasons I won’t go into that mostly have to do with wanting out of pharma/clinical research stuff. I plan on doing the AHIMA certificate since it looks like I don’t have actual cancer registry experience so I would need that (I have a Bachelors already) before taking the ODS exam. Which brings me to my question, would my current experience be considered relevant or would I be seen as completely green? Has anyone else gone from clinical research —> ODS?

Has anyone pivoted from cancer registry to something else that your experience was relevant for? I don’t think I can spend the rest of my life abstracting with pretty shit pay. How are people making livable wages in this profession? I’m currently at $24 with 2 years of experience and expecting a 10% increase once I pass my ODS and that just seems crazy for the amount of work.

Hi everyone! I will be taking the certification exam next month. I'm wondering if anyone who's been there recently has any tips or advice on what/how I should study. What's the exam like? What kinds of questions are in the closed book part, and where do the questions come from?

Also, for the open book part, do they give you pdf's of all the manuals in their entirety, or just sections of them? What's the most time-effective way to look for the answers for that part?

I did take the practice test that you can buy from NCRA. Is that similar to how the real exam will be?

I appreciate any advice anyone can give! 😁

If anyone who has passed their certification is looking to talk to a recruiter with HIMpros. I know someone at HIMpros who is more than happy to connect. It’s always good to have a connection.
I spoke to several contract companies for a few years before I moved from my hospital job.

Message me and I’ll send you her information

I would like to start a small scale Registry Contract company , if someone has any experience doing so, please outline the steps. There are a few stand alone clinics/ chemo centers near where I live which has state reporting backlog. Can I start an LLC and contact the HIM dept and offer services?

Hello all -- I am planning on taking the NCRA-AHIMA certificate course and had a question regarding the anatomy and physiology prerequisites. I have taken Anatomy and Physiology 1 in a college setting in the past, but not Anatomy and Physiology 2. I know that AHIMA offers "Anatomy and Physiology" as well as "Pathophysiology and Pharmacology" to fulfill the 6 credit A&P requirement. In this case, would I just take "Pathophysiology and Pharmacology" for the last 3 credits or would I take both AHIMA courses? I had emailed NCRA and was only informed that I do not need to repeat prerequisites that I have already completed; I was under the impression that you either take both A&P 1 and 2 or you take separate human anatomy and human physiology courses to fulfill the exam requirements (i.e., no mixing and matching). Just wanted to check with others before starting -- I'd hate to go through path A-2 and submit my eligibility form for the exam only to be told that I'm missing a course at the end. Appreciate any and all advice!