August 25, 2008
Breast Cancer Surveillance Web site has been enhanced
Group Health Web site supports scientific collaboration
Seattle—Group Health Center for Health Studies' Breast Cancer Surveillance project has enhanced its Web site (www.centerforhealthstudies.org/surveillanceproject) to improve scientific collaboration and dissemination of information on breast cancer risk and mammographic performance. The project, launched in 1996, has published more than 250 peer-reviewed articles that have helped save many women's lives.
This improved Web site will build on the many collaborative relationships already established locally and internationally and will allow new investigators to draw on the wealth of information and experience the project has gained over the years. The Web site encourages investigators to submit proposals to use the data collected over the past 14 years to answer new research questions related to breast cancer risk, screening, and outcomes.
The project has explored many aspects of breast cancer: from the modest benefit of clinical breast exams on cancer detection to reasons for mammography failure in younger women. Many seminal publications have emerged from this work. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has called upon this research in developing screening guidelines for the American public and health care providers to follow.
Group Health is one of five sites in the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium, which the National Cancer Institute funds. The Consortium links mammography registries with tumor and pathology registries and actively collects contemporary and historical data. Group Health clinical staff, radiologists, and researchers all contribute to this important source of information to transform health care.
Diana Buist, PhD, MPH is the principal investigator of the study and leads the team of Group Health Center for Health Studies contributors: Robert Reid, MD, PhD; Carolyn Rutter, PhD; Erin Bowles, MPH; Melissa Anderson, MS; and Dawn Fitzgibbons, MPH; and advisory committee members: Joann Elmore, MD, MPH; Constance D. Lehman, MD, PhD, Christopher Li, MD, PhD; Anne McTiernan, MD, PhD; Peggy Porter, MD; Emily White, PhD.
Group Health Center for Health Studies
Founded in 1947, Group Health Cooperative is a Seattle-based,
consumer-governed, nonprofit health care system that coordinates care
and coverage. For 25 years, the Group Health Center for Health Studies
has conducted research on preventing, diagnosing, and treating major
health problems. Government and private research grants provide its
main funding.