Hi Randi,
In general, when an item is being "retired", it needs to be removed from the new user-defined dictionaries.
But that's because "retired" means "this data item should never be transmitted by this dictionary again". It's very different than saying "this data item is not applicable anymore (not collected anymore), but it still needs to be transmitted for old cases".
If you look at the standard NAACCR items, you will see many of them that are only applicable to old cases, but they still need to be transmitted today, and NAACCR never retired them.
Taking the tobacco fields from your example: if those fields were removed from your central registry system, then you would never want an hospital to send them again (not even for old cases); in that case those field would really be "retired" and removed from the new dictionaries. On the other hand, if your central registry system still supports the fields (for old cases), then you would be OK still receiving that data. In that case, you wouldn't really "retire" the fields; but you will expect them to only be transmitted for old cases (which is simple to enforce via edits for example).
I hope this somewhat answers your question. There isn't really one answer-fits-all. But if you still not sure how to proceed, I would lean towards leaving them and re-evaluating next year (it's the path of least resistance).
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Fabian Depry
Information Management Services, Inc.
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-22-2023 14:29
From: Randi Rycroft
Subject: User defined dictionaries and retired data items
When our state retires (i.e., no longer requires) state-specific data items, how do we handle this in our user-defined dictionary? Our specific example is that we continued to require the "Forever 7" data items resulting from our participation in the NPCR CER project. As of 2022, we dropped the requirement for the 4 separate tobacco use items. Should these data elements remain in the user-defined data dictionary for a time to accommodate the situation of hospitals that may be reporting older cases in a current year? Apologies if this is addressed in other XML materials, but I could not find the answer.
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Randi Rycroft
Cancer Data Registry of Idaho
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