RDU NAACCR Talk: Assigning Census Tracts

Recorded On: 08/18/2025

Overview
Speaker(s)

This webinar will provide tools to help registries efficiently assign tract-based attributes to all cases. It is recommended that the most current census geography is appended to each cancer case, currently 2020 boundaries. Additionally, for cases diagnosed 2016+, NAACCR will be using Census 2020 geography for tract attributes, and you may use 2020 tracts for small area analysis. Registries should not re-geocode your previously geocoded cases to add Census 2020 geography. Rather, registries should use a “point-in-polygon” technique. This NAACCR Talk will showcase 3 free, point-in-polygon techniques for adding Census 2020 geography: SAS, QGIS, and Texas A&M Geoservices.

This is an important webinar for US registries participating the NAACCR Call for Data to ensure the geocoded data and associated attributes are correct for submission.

Christopher Johnson, MPH

Epidemiologist, Idaho SEER Principal Investigator

Cancer Data Registry of Idaho

Chris Johnson has worked as an epidemiologist for the Cancer Data Registry of Idaho, a program of the Idaho Hospital Association, since 1998. Mr. Johnson received a Master of Public Health degree in biostatistics from the University of North Carolina, a long time ago. He has been involved with NAACCR since early in his career as a cancer epidemiologist, and his main contributions to NAACCR today are on the Virtual Pooled Registry Cancer Linkage System and as lead editor for the NAACCR Cancer in North America (CiNA) survival and prevalence volumes.

CDRI’s involvement in this project was funded in whole with Federal funds from the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under Contract No. HHSN261201800006I, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Health and Human Services, under Cooperative Agreement NU58DP007160 to the Cancer Data Registry of Idaho, Idaho Hospital Association.

The findings and conclusions in this presentation are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the National Cancer Institute or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.