Information for Patients

Radiology facilities in Vermont work with the Vermont Mammography Registry to collect information to better understand the cause, prevention, early detection, and treatment of breast cancer. In addition to your personal health care, this information may be used for quality assurance and research.
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Play Your Part in Lifesaving Cancer Research

Each time you come in for breast imaging the information you provide in your health questionnaire gives you a chance to join the millions of women who opt to share this vital information for breast cancer research.

Vermont Mammography Registry

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If you’ve had a mammogram at any participating Vermont Mammography Registry facility, you may already be a partner in this life saving research! The Vermont Mammography Registry is part of the Vermont Breast Cancer Surveillance System and a partner of the nationwide Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium (BCSC). Together, we collaborate with leading scientists from across the country to study breast cancer screening and diagnosis. Through this partnership, we can study information about breast health and breast imaging from millions of women. And the more women we study, the better our chances of finding new and better ways to prevent and diagnose breast cancer.

From 1996 through 2022 the Vermont Mammography Registry was statewide, collecting data on all breast imaging exams done within the state. Since 2023 data collection efforts have focused on a subset of radiology facilities in Vermont, including North Country Hospital, The University of Vermont Medical Center and their affiliates, Porter Medical Center and Central Vermont Medical Center.

More than 13 Million Mammograms

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The Vermont Mammography Registry (VMR) and our research partners at the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium now have information on more than 13 million mammograms to include in our research. This vast database of mammograms has contributed to hundreds of published studies on breast cancer screening, with topics including:

  • The development of a new predictive model for breast cancer risk using clinical factors and breast density
  • Access the BCSC risk calculators
  • Criteria used to identify women at risk of developing breast cancer between mammograms
  • Changes in breast cancer screening rates in Vermont

These studies and more have served as a resource to guide health care policy and breast cancer screening guidelines nationwide. Your contributions to our research make this possible!