NPCR–EDITS—Tools for Writing Portable Edits

NPCR–EDITS tools improve data quality by standardizing the way data items are checked for validity. CDC developed the NPCR–EDITS tools to implement the National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR), established by Public Law 102-515. The first NPCR–EDITS programs were released more than 10 years ago and are still in use today. These programs were originally written for the Microsoft^® DOS operating system.

As of June 2007, these programs have been substantially rewritten for modern Windows^® operating systems.

These programs are provided for free distribution to the public health community. NPCR–EDITS functionality can be built into interactive data collection systems written by others to achieve real-time field-by-field editing during data entry. They can also be used in batch-editing processes for data already collected.

NPCR–EDITS supports three types of data activities—

• Defining standards for data quality.
• Checking data during collection processes.
• Preparing data for analysis.

The newest Windows-based NPCR–EDITS tools may be downloaded from this site. The available software includes programs for creating, publishing, and applying data validation standards.