The Uniform Data Standards Committee (UDSC) of NAACCR

The UDSC compiles coding, editing, and data exchange standards, including remaining unresolved issues, which are published and disseminated by NAACCR. The work of UDSC built on earlier joint efforts of CoC and SEER, under the auspices of NCRA, to find ways to coordinate disparate codes and data sets.

By agreement of the participants, items under consideration for change by the standard setters that define data elements collected by registries are reviewed by the UDS committee. Consideration of a proposed change includes the logical structure of the code (will it do what is intended?), continuity with past data (can the new code be collapsed for comparison with earlier codes?), reason for the change (due to technological developments or to correct an existing inconsistency), and underlying theory. Most proposals are resolved by adoption of the new standard (or retention of the old one) by all.

Apparent persistent inconsistencies in codes often reflect differences in underlying theory. That is, codes that might appear to measure the same thing do not, and they differ in respects that remain important to the participating organizations. An example is the distinct codes that measure cancer spread at diagnosis.