Since 1989 death certificate information for all provincial deaths has been added as part of an annual probabilistic record linkage process. A benefit of this record linkage step is a second and independent search for duplicate registrations. All residents of the province are covered by a provincially-funded comprehensive Health Insurance scheme. The plan's unique identity number aids considerably in the maintenance of the unduplicated patient index. The melanoma annual incidence rates in Nova Scotia are approximately 14 per 100,000 in males and 12 in females.
Skin cancer presents some unique reporting problems, as is true elsewhere.
In the future, the Nova Scotia Cancer Registry will collect all data possible on NMSC, but will not analyse this data in its entirety. Indeed, sample methods will be used to estimate the total number of new diagnoses by pathology report, and estimated counts and rates will be reported, along with guidelines for their interpretation. The Registry covers the whole of the Province of Nova Scotia, one of the three Maritime Provinces of Canada, which lies to the south of the St. Lawrence River, east of the Gulf of Maine, west of the Atlantic Ocean, and south of the Provinces of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Most of the province lies less than 200 metres above sea level, the highest point being at 529 metres in the Cape Breton peninsula. 59 and 67 degrees West and latitudes 43 and 47 degrees North.