FOA for mHealth technology and interventions for LMICs

Please see below for a new NIH funding opportunity that may be of interest - the focus is on mHealth technology and interventions for LMICs, which could include tobacco control and cessation.

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to encourage exploratory/developmental research applications that propose to conduct research to develop or adapt innovative mobile health (mHealth) technology specifically suited for low and middle income countries (LMICs) and determine the health-related outcomes associated with implementation of the technology. Of highest interest are innovative, well-designed multidisciplinary projects that aim to generate generalizable knowledge for the field.
The overall goal of the FOA is to contribute to the evidence base for the use of mobile technology to improve clinical outcomes and public health while building research capacity in LMICs and establishing research networks in this area. Applicants are required to propose partnerships between at least one U.S. institution and one LMIC institution and the proposed research plan should strengthen the mHealth research capabilities at the LMIC institution.

http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-16-292.html

Increases in Smoking Cessation Interventions After a Feedback and Improvement Initiative Using Electronic Health Records

Dear Colleagues:

A tobacco-related article written in partnership with New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health is published in the latest MMWR. Read the full article here.

Increases in Smoking Cessation Interventions After a Feedback and Improvement Initiative Using Electronic Health Records — 19 Community Health Centers, New York City, October 2010–March 2012

Electronic health records have the potential to make it easier for health care providers to screen for and document tobacco use and to intervene with patients who use tobacco products. In addition, patient lists generated by an electronic health record system can offer timely feedback to providers and can also be used to identify issues where improvement is needed. Most smokers want to quit and make at least one medical visit each year. Documenting smoking status and intervening with smokers in health care settings increases quit rates, but many providers and practices do not routinely take these actions. An electronic health record-based pay-for-improvement initiative conducted in 19 Community Health Centers in New York City during October 2010-March 2012 sought to increase smoking status documentation and cessation interventions. At the end of the initiative, the mean proportion of patients who were documented as smokers had increased from 24% to 27% while the mean proportion of documented smokers who received a cessation intervention increased from 23% to 54%.

“Where's the Justice? Tobacco Use and the Incarcerated” Webinar

The Smoking Cessation Leadership Center (SCLC) is pleased to invite you to its next free webinar, “Where's the Justice? Tobacco Use and the Incarcerated”, on Wednesday, October 8, 2014, at 2:00pm Eastern Time/ 11:00am Pacific Time (90 minutes).

We are honored to have the following expert speakers presenting on this topic for us:

• Chad D. Morris, PhD, Associate Professor and Director, Behavioral Health & Wellness Program, University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus, Department of Psychiatry
• Brenda K. Howard, MS, CADC, CCS, Public Health Section Chief, Tobacco Prevention and Cessation, Arkansas Department of Health
• Ben Udochi, CCS, Assistant Director Parole/Probation Treatment Services, Arkansas Community Correction

Webinar Objectives: 

·         Identify socio-cultural, political, and environmental factors that contribute to the high prevalence of smoking among justice involved individuals. 

·         Describe a tobacco cessation continuity-of-care program for justice involved individuals that has been implemented in several states.

·         Examine processes for integrating tobacco cessation in Arkansas within justice involved incarcerated settings and field based supervised populations.

REGISTER HERE:   https://cc.readytalk.com/r/3pmwgu99zc9&eom

Accreditation:

The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

UCSF designates this live activity for a maximum of 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits^TM. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the webinar activity.

Nurse Practitioners and Registered Nurses: For the purpose of recertification, the American Nurses Credentialing Center accepts AMA PRA Category 1 Credit^TM issued by organizations accredited by the ACCME.

Physician Assistants: The National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA) states that the AMA PRA Category 1 Credits^TM are acceptable for continuing medical education requirements for recertification.

California Pharmacists: The California Board of Pharmacy accepts as continuing professional education those courses that meet the standard of relevance to pharmacy practice and have been approved for AMA PRA category 1 credit^TM. If you are a pharmacist in another state, you should check with your state board for approval of this credit.

Social Workers: This course meets the qualifications for 1.5 hours of continuing education credit for MFTs and/or LCSWs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. If you a social worker in another state, you should check with your state board for approval of this credit.

CME/CEUs will be available for participants who join the LIVE session, on October 8, 2014. You will receive instructions on how to claim credit via the post webinar email.

Don’t need to claim CME/CEUs?  SCLC issues free certificates of attendance for those who want contact hours only.

Please feel free to forward this announcement to your colleagues.  For questions, contact Jennifer Matekuare, SCLC Operations Manager, at jmatekuare@medicine.ucsf.edu, or call toll-free (877) 509-3786.  This webinar will be recorded and may be viewed online on the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center’s website after the presentation. 

Tobacco Kills: Intervention and Policy Solutions in Addiction Treatment

The Smoking Cessation Leadership Center (SCLC) and the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) are pleased to invite you to this free webinar, “Tobacco Kills: Intervention and Policy Solutions in Addiction Treatment” on September 23, 2014 at 2:00pm Eastern Time/ 11:00am Pacific Time (90 minutes).

We are honored to have Joseph Guydish, PhD, MPH, Professor of Medicine and Health Policy at the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at University of California, San Francisco presenting on this topic for us.

Webinar Objectives: 

·         Discuss the very high prevalence of smoking among persons in addiction treatment, and some of the reasons underlying this high prevalence.

·         Explain the role of smoking in excess mortality as well as premature mortality among persons who receive addiction treatment.

·         Describe program and policy approaches to better addressing smoking in addiction treatment populations.

·         Identify the rate of quit attempts for persons  in addiction treatment, and strategies for increasing quit attempts

REGISTER HERE:    https://cc.readytalk.com/r/3oxjo1mdd5q2&eom

Accreditation:

The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

UCSF designates this live activity for a maximum of 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits^TM. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the webinar activity.

SCLC will be offering free CME/CEUs for participants who join the LIVE session, on September 23, 2014. You will receive instructions on how to claim credit via the post webinar email.

Don’t need to claim CME/CEUs?  SCLC issues free certificates of attendance for those who want contact hours only.

Please feel free to forward this announcement to your colleagues.  For questions, contact Jennifer Matekuare, SCLC Operations Manager, at jmatekuare@medicine.ucsf.edu, or call toll-free (877) 509-3786.  This webinar will be recorded and may be viewed online on the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center’s website after the presentation. 

ActionToQuit Releases New Tobacco Cessation Guide for the Armed Forces

Partnership for Prevention's ActionToQuit initiative released a new guide, Help Your Patients Quit Tobacco Use: An Implementation Guide for the Armed Forces. The guide makes the case that tobacco cessation treatment should be a standard of care at every patient encounter and it lays out steps for treatment facilities to integrate tobacco cessation services into clinical practice. In addition, it spotlights military treatment facilities and health promotion and wellness centers across the United States for their exceptional commitment to assisting service members, veterans, and their families to break-free from tobacco addiction. This resource can be used as a practical tool to supplement the VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guideline on Management of Tobacco Use (2008).

CDC study finds more than a quarter-million youth who had never smoked a cigarette have tried e-cigarettes

Tuesday, September 2, 2014 CDC study finds more than a quarter-million youth who had never smoked a cigarette have tried e-cigarettes A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-authored study* found that in 2013, 263,000 young people who had never smoked had used e-cigarettes, compared with 79,000 in 2011. For the study, CDC researchers analyzed data from the 2011, 2012, and 2013 National Youth Tobacco Surveys of middle and high school students to assess associations between e-cigarette use and smoking intentions among U.S. youth who had never smoked conventional cigarettes. For this analysis, researchers used established methods to identify youth who are classified as having smoking intentions. Youth who reported they would definitely not smoke in the next year and reported they would definitely not smoke if offered a cigarette by a friend were defined as not having an intention to smoke. All others were classified as having positive intention to smoke conventional cigarettes. Previous research has demonstrated that these youth are more likely to initiate smoking in the future. Other key findings of the study include: ·         Ever users of e-cigarettes were almost twice as likely to have smoking intentions than never users of e-cigarettes, 43.9% compared with 21.5%. ·         As shown in previous studies, the greater the number of advertising sources (internet, magazine and newspaper, retail environment, and television or movies) to which young people were exposed, the more likely they are to be at risk for initiation of smoking:  §  13% of students who said they had no exposures to such ads had smoking intentions §  20.4% among those who reported exposures from one to two ad sources §  25.6% among those who reported exposures from three to four ad sources. There is evidence that nicotine’s adverse effects on adolescent brain development could result in lasting deficits in cognitive function.  Nicotine is highly addictive.  About three out of every four teen smokers become adult smokers, even if they intend to quit in a few years.  Each day, more than 3,200 American youth smoke their first cigarette.  The Surgeon General has concluded that unless the smoking rate is rapidly reduced, 5.6 million American children alive today – about one in every 13—will die prematurely from a smoking-related disease. The National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) is an annual survey conducted by CDC in collaboration with FDA to provide national data on long-term, intermediate, and short-term indicators key to the design, implementation, and evaluation of comprehensive tobacco prevention and control programs. The NYTS also serves as a baseline for comparing progress toward meeting selected Healthy People 2020 goals for reducing tobacco use among adolescents. More than 50 years since the landmark Surgeon General’s Report linking cigarette smoking to lung cancer, smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the United States, killing nearly half a million Americans every year.  More than 16 million Americans live with a smoking-related disease.  Smoking-related diseases cost Americans $132 billion a year in direct health care expenses, much of which comes in taxpayer-supported payments.  For additional information on CDC’s work to prevent smoking and tobacco use, please visit www.cdc.gov/tobacco or contact Jennifer Greaser at JGreaser@cdc.gov. * Access to the full publication is available only by subscription.  A CDC summary of the paper’s findings is here: http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/youth/e-cigarettes/index.htm
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