Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Breast Cancer affects a large number of women in Canada. Mammography screening is the main test to detect this disease. Currently, there are programs to provide this screening test to women. There are both benefits and harms to this test for women at average-risk of getting breast cancer. Sometimes, this screening test finds cancers that never would have ended up harming a woman. Women may therefore have unneeded tests and treatments. These can cause emotional and physical pain. Different guidelines suggest that women should start regular screening at different ages. Some guidelines say each woman's risk of getting breast cancer and her preferences should guide this decision. Family doctors help women make these decisions. It is therefore important to know their thoughts on these guidelines and the scientific knowledge used to create them. This study aims to find out what family doctors think of research on mammography screening. Doctors registered to the Canadian Medical Association can receive an email summarizing new research on mammography through a program called Patient Oriented Evidence that Matters. These doctors reply with their thoughts on this research and whether it will be useful or not in practice. The research team reviewed these responses and organized them into different themes. Early analysis shows that doctors have a wide range of perspectives on mammography research. Differences exist in the way doctors value and use clinical research in their screening discussions with average-risk women. We expect that this project will create useful knowledge that will make family doctors think more about screening. It can also help us better understand the way doctors and patients talk about screening and what guides doctors in these conversations. The results may additionally help us understand the role of doctors in counselling women about screening.This study is an important starting point for future research on breast cancer screening.