Key data items

To produce information which will be genuinely useful in improving patient care, it is important that as much data as possible is collected. Data submitted must be complete in terms of the number of sites submitting data, the number of lung cancer patients recorded by each site and the amount of data submitted about each patient.

Ideally, all relevant fields on the lung cancer audit database (LUCADA) should be completed. However, sometimes all the information is not available. If for any reason the full dataset cannot be submitted, please complete the key data fields.

Please note that this key field guide is intended only as a short term measure and all organisations should strive to complete all relevant data fields for all patients as they become familiar with the LUCADA dataset. Note that only completing these key fields will not guarantee inclusion in all analyses undertaken by the audit.

New users may wish to complete key fields to familiarise themselves with the system whilst devising a strategy to allow the submission of the full dataset. The full dataset can be submitted at a later date if this is feasible.

Data completeness

We encourage all LUCADA users to review the completeness of their data regularly in order to produce as meaningful results as possible. This can be done by following these steps