Home Journal List JOURNAL OF AYUB MEDICAL COLLEGE ABBOTTABAD Volume 31 Article Details

SETTING-UP A DEATH REGISTRY

Abstract

The Punjab Cancer Registry, a population-based cancer registry (PBCR), sponsored by the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust, was established in 2005, by the collaborative efforts of the professionals of the province of the Punjab, Pakistan, representing both the private and government sectors.1 Even though it has been more than a decade since the registry was set-up, results for just one district of the 36 districts of the Punjab, the district of Lahore, have been published in recent years, and show extensive results on the incidence rates for the population of Lahore.2,3The delay in having the registry up and running has been due to the fact that setting-up relevant processes to facilitate cancer registration/surveillance is an arduous task in our region, compounded with a low level of awareness about its importance within the doctor community and general public as well. Although the significance of calculating the incidence rates of a population living in a geographically defined area, over a specified period of time, and concomitantly gauging the disease burden, cannot be denied, globally, PBCRs have a role beyond determining the aforementioned statistics.4 PBCRs also play an important part in determining the mortality and survival statistics in order to present the quality of life and to quantify overall and treatment outcomes so as to assist in developing management strategies and infrastructure needed to deal with such conditions.4 Except for the death of some of the patients taking place at hospitals where deaths are recorded, the demise of most patients takes place in their native towns where there are no systems to inform the managing hospitals, for the sake of record keeping

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