The University of Wisconsin Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention (UW-CTRI) has received a five-year, $11.1 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to identify strategies to improve tobacco use treatments for adult patients at community health centers.
Partnering with 16 community health centers in Wisconsin and Massachusetts, the multidisciplinary team of researchers will develop, test, refine and sustain improved tobacco use treatments for the centers’ adult patients. UW-CTRI director Dr. Hasmeena Kathuria and UW-CTRI co-director of research Danielle McCarthy, PhD, will lead the project. Community health centers are ideal partners for tobacco cessation treatment work, McCarthy said, since they already screen for tobacco use, advise patients to quit, and keep records of those efforts.
Nearly 22 million adults in the U.S. receive care at community health centers each year. This population smokes cigarettes at a much higher rate (22%) than the general population (10%). Kathuria said that the UW-CTRI team will draw on 26 years of experience in outreach and tobacco treatment delivery while also working with external partners to develop new and improved ways for the centers to treat and reach out to their patients. Key partners include Azara Healthcare, which will help with outreach strategies as well as new and improved ways to track those efforts. RVO Health, a national provider of tobacco helpline services, will partner with the team to implement a new chronic care approach for people who do not quit after a single round of treatment.
The team and its partners will also develop resources to promote the use of no-cost tobacco helpline services, which health centers will add to their standard care services and evaluate for efficacy. A key outcome of this grant will be putting research findings to work right away to support sustained improvements in tobacco use treatment as well as new implementation guides and resources that other health care centers across the nation can use.
Learn more about the project to improve tobacco use treatment
