This project included three activities in conjunction with the April 1996 release of the federal Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) Smoking Cessation Clinical Practice Guideline. The activities were:

• A two-day conference on policy issues critical to the dissemination and adoption of the Guideline among health care providers and health plans.
• Communications support for the conference.
• Preparation and publication of the proceedings from the conference.

Key Results

Cosponsored by RWJF, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Office on Smoking and Health (OSH), and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the conference, "AHCPR Smoking Cessation Guideline: Its Goals and Impact," was held in Washington, September 17–18, 1996.

It drew more than 250 registrants, including public health officials, representatives of pharmaceutical companies with tobacco dependence treatment products, and decision-makers from managed care and health delivery systems.

The conference included:

A review of the Guideline.

Perspectives on the Guideline from representatives of various smoking cessation constituencies, such as physicians, employers, and consumers.

A discussion of implementation/dissemination issues.

An exploration of potential outcomes by which to measure the impact of the Guideline.

Promotion of the conference and the Guideline in the media resulted in coverage in various national and health-related publications and media outlets. Conference proceedings were published in a special supplement of the Autumn 1997 issue of Tobacco Control, an international, peer-reviewed journal.

Funding

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) supported the project with three grants totaling $116,956.

RWJF also awarded six grants to support the dissemination of the Guideline, including grants to the Medical College of Wisconsin (Madison, Wis.) and five professional health organizations representing gynecologists, cardiopulmonary specialists, women physicians, pediatricians, and nurses (see Program Results on ID# 029389, etc.).

The conference and the related communication activities were part of a multi-phase RWJF strategy to encourage the use of the Guideline and to address any policy-related and institutional barriers to systematic smoking cessation treatment.