Radiology Epidemiology Group

Several Funded Research Projects are presently active in the Epidemiology Group

1.  The Carolina Mammography Registry (CMR). For the past 13 years, CMR has been funded by the National Cancer Institute.  This is a collaborative research project created to study the performance of screening mammography in community practice.   

This is a collaboration among practices in 39 counties in NC.  Practices collect prospective information related to screening mammography and share these data with CMR.  In return, CMR assists all practices in meeting their audit reporting requirements of the Mammography Quality Standards Act (MQSA). Mammography practices, by this law, are required to monitor the results of screening mammography and the performance of the practice over time.  CMR links information collected on woman characteristics, mammography findings, results and recommendations with data from the North Carolina Central Cancer Registry, and a pathology database for outcomes from screening and diagnostic breast imaging. 

This project is a member of the national Breast Cancer Surveillance System (BCSC), http://breastscreening.cancer.gov.  Six other sites around the U.S. pool data from state mammography registries for research on a national basis.  See CMR or BCSC web sites for accomplishments and published papers to date.  CMR welcomes proposals from outside researchers to use the Registry data.

2.  Evaluation of False Positive Mammography.  Under a grant funded by the NCI, investigators will build statistical models and collect descriptive data from community mammograms to enhance the ability to discriminate true positive from false positive mammograms.  The goal is to reduce false positive mammography, without a reduction in sensitivity. 

3.  Screening Mammography Follow-up for Women with Disabilities.  Under funding from the Komen Foundation, this grant will test whether women with disabilities can be identified, and discover the barriers to keeping them active in mammography screening. 

4.  Assessing and Improving Mammography.  This grant is a collaborative effort of all the Principal Investigators in the BCSC.  This study is a multi-part study funded by the American Cancer Society and National Cancer Institute. The overall goal of this study is to better understand the factors that contribute to the variability in interpretive performance of mammography, and to identify ways that performance can be improved. 

5.  Factors Affecting Variability among Radiologists.  This study, funded by Agency for Health Research and Quality, is also a multi-institutional study, headed up by Joann Elmore at the University of Washington.  The goal is to explore the effect of variations in characteristics, training, and practice patterns of radiologists on their ability to interpret mammography.  An educational intervention has been developed.

6.  The Epidemiology Group has also developed a research network in Robeson County, with the goal to conduct research in the primary care setting, partnering academic faculty with the primary care providers, to understand health issues in the American Indian community.  There is opportunity for many different kinds of studies within the Network.

Radiologists from CMR are invited to participate in 2, 4 and 5 above, and will receive category I CME credit for their participation.

Researchers are encouraged to submit proposals that use CMR data.