The Registrar's Guide: Evolving Best Practices in Records and Registration is the first comprehensive guide to the registrar's profession to be published in 27 years. Its 35 chapters address a variety of responsibilities, ranging from registration and academic scheduling to detecting credentials fraud and implementing student information systems; preparing for commencement and preparing for accreditation; project management and "Budgeting for Registrars." Other chapters address the work of the registrar in various settings, including small colleges, community colleges, graduate schools, and law, medical and theology schools. The book also contains overviews of FERPA, the Solomon Amendment, and an appendix of information sources on additional compliance matters.

This User’s Guide is intended to support the design, implementation, analysis, interpretation, and quality evaluation of registries created to increase understanding of patient outcomes. For the purposes of this guide, a patient registry is an organized system that uses observational study methods to collect uniform data (clinical and other) to evaluate specified outcomes for a population defined by a particular disease, condition, or exposure, and that serves one or more predetermined scientific, clinical, or policy purposes. A registry database is a file (or files) derived from the registry. Although registries can serve many purposes, this guide focuses on registries created for one or more of the following purposes: to describe the natural history of disease, to determine clinical effectiveness or cost-effectiveness of health care products and services, to measure or monitor safety and harm, and/or to measure quality of care. Registries are classified according to how their populations are defined. For example, product registries include patients who have been exposed to biopharmaceutical products or medical devices. Health services registries consist of patients who have had a common procedure, clinical encounter, or hospitalization. Disease or condition registries are defined by patients having the same diagnosis, such as cystic fibrosis or heart failure. The User’s Guide was created by researchers affiliated with AHRQ’s Effective Health Care Program, particularly those who participated in AHRQ’s DEcIDE (Developing Evidence to Inform Decisions About Effectiveness) program. Chapters were subject to multiple internal and external independent reviews.