An estimated 45 million Americans, 21% of the population, currently smoke cigarettes. Among other illnesses, cigarette smoking is associated with a number of different types of cancer including, lung cancer, cancers of the head and neck area, cancer of the bladder and kidneys, cervical cancer, pancreatic cancer, colon cancer, esophageal cancer and breast cancer. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that cigarette smoking is the number one preventable cause of illness and death in the United States, accounting for more than 435,000 deaths each year.

Tobacco use is very costly both to individuals and our society. Smoking-related healthcare expenses are estimated at $200 billion ann...

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An estimated 45 million Americans, 21% of the population, currently smoke cigarettes. Among other illnesses, cigarette smoking is associated with a number of different types of cancer including, lung cancer, cancers of the head and neck area, cancer of the bladder and kidneys, cervical cancer, pancreatic cancer, colon cancer, esophageal cancer and breast cancer. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that cigarette smoking is the number one preventable cause of illness and death in the United States, accounting for more than 435,000 deaths each year.

Tobacco use is very costly both to individuals and our society. Smoking-related healthcare expenses are estimated at $200 billion annually if you consider the cost of direct medical care and lost productivity. Thus, quitting smoking could prevent a large number of deaths each year and defer the onset of a large number of these terminal illnesses.

Many smokers, however, find it difficult to stop using cigarettes, a fact that is confirmed by the staggering rate of relapse. Regrettably, most of these efforts are unsuccessful. Of the 17 million smokers that try to quit each year, fewer than 1 out of 10 actually succeed long term. Currently, there are a number of smoking cessation treatments available to individuals who wish to quit smoking.

A logical place to implement smoking cessation treatment is during scheduled physician visits as approximately 70% of US smokers visit their primary health physician every year. Research has shown that even brief comments by a healthcare provider (e.g., 3-5 min.) can influence whether or not a smoker makes a quit attempt. Unfortunately, smoking cessation interventions are often not offered to patients because of lack of time during the office visit or the belief from health care professionals that they do not have the necessary training to do so.

The current project will train front-line healthcare providers (physicians and nurses) and front-line mental health care providers (psychologists) in a comprehensive yet relatively brief smoking cessation intervention program grounded in the 2008 HHS Guidelines (Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence: Clinical Practice Guideline 2008 Update, HHS). This program will overcome previous barriers in the provision of smoking cessation treatments by including psychologists as part of the training. Psychologists can provide added patient services, as part of the treatment team which will lead to more help for both patients and the physicians/nurses, who do not have the time available for ongoing support services.

This project has the potential to target a large geographic area, and the entities involved in the program documented over 88,000 patient visits in 2009. This program has potential to impact hundreds if not thousands of patients and to reduce smoking-related cancer rates in this patient population.

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