Enhancing NNE-CTR Data Science Capacity to Support Clinical Informatics Applications in Cancer Control Research
The long-term goal of the Northern New England Clinical and Translational Research (NNE-CTR) Network, composed of MaineHealth (MH), the University of Vermont (UVM), and the University of Southern Maine (USM), is to sustain a clinical and translational research infrastructure that supports improvements in community health for inhabitants in the IDeA states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The Vermont Breast Cancer Surveillance System (VBCSS) is a UVM-based research program that addresses a wide spectrum of questions in rural breast cancer control, including prevention, detection, survivorship, and health equity, through a breast imaging data registry that is a partnership between UVM, academic and community-based radiology practices, and the Vermont Department of Health. The VBCSS is one of the six founding member registries within the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium (BCSC), which pools data nationally to develop novel breast cancer risk prediction models, evaluate the performance of breast cancer screening and diagnosis modalities in clinical practice, evaluate novel artificial intelligence approaches in breast imaging, and advance equitable risk-based breast cancer screening and surveillance in community practice.
In this supplement application we seek to enhance the institutional data science capacity within the NNE-CTR at the University of Vermont, with a specific goal to rebuild and strengthen the VBCSS to modernize its data systems, expand its data collection using state-of-the-art technologies and novel data sources, and develop improved data sharing technologies that in total will significantly advance the scope of research accomplished by the VBCSS and NNE-CTR investigators. With this expanded NNE-CTR data science capacity we will also support the development of other existing and new cancer-related data resources at the University of Vermont. In particular, we will link the VBCSS data repository to Vermont's all-payer claims database (VHCURES). This will enable us to address new research questions in breast cancer related to the decline in mammography utilization observed in the state over the past decade.
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This project is funded by grant U54 GM115516 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS).