Summary:

Despite progressive gains over the last 15 years, the universal clinical treatment of tobacco dependence remains an unrealized potential in the United States. Research evidence summarized in the upcoming 2008 Public Health Service Guideline holds promise to greatly improve the likelihood that this potential will be put into practice. The University of Wisconsin Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention (UW-CTRI), with support from the Foundation, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, American Legacy Foundation, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and National Cancer Institute, is leading an effort to extensively update the clinical practice guideline for the treatment of tobacco dependence, last published in 2000. The new guidelines are scheduled for publication in early 2008. They will include evidence and recommendations concerning new counseling strategies such as quit lines, new medications, strategies that health care and insurer systems should employ, and detailed information on treatment of special populations, especially to address the under use of effective treatments, especially by low-income and racial/ethnic disparities in smoking prevalence and treatment use. The three phases of this project will update and enhance the current USPHS guideline-related materials for health care clinicians and patients (i.e., smokers and their families), and develop and test new materials based on the 2008 guideline for health plans, insurers and policy makers. The first phase of the project will draft updates and enhancements for the existing primary clinical and smokers (consumer) information based on the 2000 guideline. During phase two, these materials will be tested and a new set of materials and tools will be developed, addressing recommendations for health care systems, public health and community organizations, and insurers. The final phase of the project will test the revised and updated materials and organize a wider distribution effort for all of the guideline promotional materials developed. Deliverables will include at least 20 informational pieces that translate the clinical practice guidelines for clinical staff, consumers and organizations having a responsibility for tobacco dependence treatment, and the development of at least one electronic Continuing Medical Education course (CME). This project will be considered successful if the number of materials disseminated is 50 percent greater than the number previously distributed, and if the number of providers receiving CME credits is significantly expanded over past levels. It is hoped that both of these goals will result in increased delivery and use of evidence-based cessation treatments, higher population quit rates and lower tobacco use prevalence rates.

Grant Details:

Approved award: $100,000
Awarded on: Dec 20, 2007
Time frame: Jan 1, 2008 - Dec 31, 2009
Grant number: 63443

Grantee:

University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
http://www.wisc.edu
Health Sciences Learning Center
750 Highland Avenue
Madison, WI 53705-2221
(608) 263-4900

Contact Information:

Michael C. Fiore, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A. (Project Director)
mcf@ctri.medicine.wisc.edu
Phone: (608) 262-8673

Bruce A. Christiansen, Ph.D. (Project Director)
bc1@ctri.medicine.wisc.edu
Phone: (608) 262-4087