Primary care clinicians counsel patients to quit smoking more often when they are prompted by an electronic health record, according to a new study supported by AHRQ and NIH's National Cancer Institute. Clinicians participating in the study were part of the Partners Primary Care Practice-Based Research Network, a group of 26 primary care practices that currently use a Web-based electronic health record and are affiliated with Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. Clinicians in an intervention group received tobacco treatment-related reminders and icons; more than 40 percent of them used a new "Tobacco Smart Form," an addition to the electronic health record that prompted them to provide a range of smoking cessation interventions. Among patients who were smokers at the start of the study, more than twice as many (5.3 percent), who went to practices with the prompts or the form quit smoking by the end of the study, largely due to followup with a tobacco counselor (3.9 percent). Select to access the free full article the April 27 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Release of ALR 2009—RWJF New Connections Call for Proposals Active Living Research is pleased to announce the release of our ALR 2009—RWJF New Connections Call for Proposals (CFP)

Applications due by 1pm PT on July 29, 2009

Released May 15, 2009, the Active Living Research 2009-RWJF New Connections Call for Proposals focuses on studies of policy and environmental strategies for increasing physical activity, decreasing sedentary behaviors and preventing obesity among children and adolescents. Target populations include children and adolescents ages 3 to 18 that are at greatest risk for obesity: African-American, Latino, Native American, Asian American and Pacific Islander children and children who live in under-resourced and/or lower-income communities. This funding opportunity is for new investigators (defined as individuals who received their doctorate or terminal degree within the last seven years) from historically disadvantaged and underrepresented communities.

Two types of grants are available through this funding opportunity: Research and Publication Grants.

1. Research grants (up to four research grants of up to $75,000 each for 12-18 months will be awarded in this category). Research grants can be either:

a. Small-scale studies to identify and evaluate environmental determinants or evaluate promising changes to physical activity environments or policies in a variety of settings;

OR

b. Macro-level analyses of policies and environmental approaches that impact children's physical activity and sedentary behaviors.

2. Publication grants to support scientific manuscripts relevant to Active Living Research's overall mission that will contribute to the applicant's scholarly productivity (up to three publication grants of up to $12,000 each for 12 months will be awarded in this category).

All proposals for both research grants and publication grants must be submitted online through the RWJF Grantmaking Online system by 1pm PT on Wednesday, July 29, 2009. To view the Call for Proposals, please go to http://www.activelivingresearch.org/alr/grantsearch/grantopportunities.

For detailed formatting instructions and to prepare and submit your proposal, please go to http://grantmaking.rwjf.org/papnci2.

Investigators who meet the specific eligibility criteria for this CFP also are eligible and encouraged to apply for other ALR grant opportunities.

To learn more about the Active Living Research program, including the Active Living Research 2009-RWJF New Connections Call for Proposals, please visit the program website at http://www.activelivingresearch.org.

For more information or personal assistance, please contact Debbie Lou, Program Analyst for Active Living Research, at 619-260-6336 or dlou@projects.sdsu.edu.

San Francisco, CA - March 19, 2009 - A new curriculum is now available online at no cost to help mental health peer counselors aid people with mental illnesses in quitting smoking, according to Steven Schroeder, M.D., director of the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF).

Dr. Schroeder stated that the curriculum was developed because of the alarmingly high smoking rates of people with behavioral health issues. He said that despite impressive declines in the proportion of the general population that smokes (now at around 1 in 5 adults), persons with mental illness continue to smoke at disproportionate rates. It has been estimated that 44.3% of all cigarettes smoked in the United States are smoked by persons with mental illness.

With input from consumers, mental health professionals, advocates, and national leaders, the 3-hour Tobacco-Free for Recovery: Assisting Mental Health Consumers with Tobacco Cessation curriculum was designed by UCSF staff and Rx for Change faculty. This program was developed to equip peer counselors with the necessary knowledge and skills to assist mental health consumers with tobacco cessation. A smoke-free lifestyle is viewed as a vital element on the path toward wellness and recovery.

The new curriculum is a modified version of Rx for Change: Clinician-Assisted Tobacco Cessation, which draws upon the Clinical Practice Guideline for Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence, and is a comprehensive program for training students and clinicians in virtually any health professional field. Those who are interested can visit the Rx for Change website at http://rxforchange.ucsf.edu to register and download PowerPoint slides, audience handouts, and correspondence video segments that are relevant to the mental health peer counselor curriculum. All materials have been reviewed by experts and are provided at no cost, for shared use.

Dr. Schroeder, who is also UCSF distinguished professor of health and health care, noted that in response to the public health problem of high levels of tobacco use among mental health consumers, leaders of the mental health community convened and established the National Mental Health Partnership for Wellness and Smoking Cessation in March 2007. This partnership leveraged, among numerous issues, the value of consumer-centered education and health promotion. The new curriculum grew, in part, out of the work of the national partnership.

 

According to Dr. Schroeder, "This new curriculum is a unique resource to address an important need by helping to educate peer counselors, who can play a very key role in helping mental health consumers to quit smoking."

 

A three-hour webinar training is planned for April 13, 2009 at 9a.m. Pacific Time (noon Eastern Time). If you are interested in participating in this free webinar or know someone who is, please contact Reason Reyes by email at Reason.Reyes@ucsf.edu or by phone at toll-free (877) 509-3786. A follow-up email will be sent to you to confirm the logistics for the training.

For more information: http://smokingcessationleadership.ucsf.edu and http://rxforchange.ucsf.edu

 

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/world_us/36966849.html

 

 LIVE Webcast: Today's Topics In Health Disparities
Are Health Disparities Back on the National Agenda?
Examining the Impact of a New Administration and Congress
Tuesday, December 9, 2008 at 1:00 p.m. ET

With a new administration and substantially changed Congress coming to Washington in January, there is a significant opportunity for new policy initiatives to tackle issues of racial and ethnic disparities in health and health care. On Tuesday, December 9, from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. ET, the Kaiser Family Foundation will hold a live, interactive webcast to examine the implications of the changes as part of its Today's Topics In Health Disparities series.

During the webcast, Are Health Disparities Back on the National Agenda? Examining the Impact of a New Administration and Congress, expert panelists will take a closer look at what types of policies and initiatives could emerge over the next few years. They will also examine how the new administration might prioritize efforts to eliminate health disparities in the future. Questions for the panel can be submitted before or during the webcast to ask@kaisernetwork.org.

The panelists are:

Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.), Member, House Committee on Energy and Commerce and Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Health Task Force
Peter Bach, MD, MAPP, Associate Attending Physician, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Former Senior Adviser to the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Brian Smedley, Vice President of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and Director of its Health Policy Institute
The discussion will be moderated by Cara James, Ph.D., senior policy analyst on race, ethnicity and health care for the Kaiser Family Foundation.

WHEN: December 9, 2008, from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. ET
Add this event to your Outlook Calendar (Please note that all times are ET).

WHERE: View the live webcast at www.kaisernetwork.org/todaystopics/09dec08 .

HOW: The panel of experts will take your questions via email. Submit questions before or during the show to ask@kaisernetwork.org.

If you have never viewed a webcast before, please test your media player in advance of the live webcast.

Today's Topics In Health Disparities is a series of live, interactive webcasts devoted to addressing a range of issues relating to health and health care disparities in the United States. Each discussion features a panel of experts tackling current issues in health disparities and answering questions from webcast viewers. Previous shows have addressed topics including the influence of immigration policies on health care decisions, federal legislative efforts to address health disparities, and what it would take to eliminate the disproportionate burden of HIV/AIDS among African Americans. See www.kaisernetwork.org/todaystopics for more details.

See the links below:

http://www.kaisernetwork.org/health_cast/hcast_index.cfm?display=detail&hc=3080

 

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/11/12/smoking_ban_tied_to_a_gain_in_lives/

 

The Office of Minority Health (OMH), Department of Health and Human Services, issues this Call for Abstracts for oral and poster presentations as part of the Third National Leadership Summit on Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities. The Summit will include sessions which highlight progress, challenges, and opportunities for improving the health of minority populations since the release of the 1985 “Report of the Secretary's Task Force on Black and Minority Health." As part of OMH's broader initiative to eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities, this 2009 Summit will: (1) build a renewed sense of leadership and partnerships across communities, (2) share success stories and methods, (3) demonstrate how model programs can be replicated or tailored for greater impact, and (4) create methods, tactics, and ideas that support more effective and efficient action. Results of the Summit will become part of the National Blueprint for Action, which will guide OMH and its public and private partners. The National Partnership for Action to End Health Disparities (NPA) was developed by OMH as a means of strategically executing that blueprint effectively. For more information about the NPA, please visit http://www.omhrc.gov/npa

http://www.omhrc.gov/npasummit2009/templates/browse.aspx?lvl=1&lvlID=20

May 13, 2008 The New York Times No one really knows how the African-American preference for menthol cigarettes developed in the first place. Some scientists speculate that cultural and taste preferences provide a partial explanation. The Rev. Jesse Brown, an antismoking advocate in Philadelphia, calls it a “chicken and egg” conundrum. But tobacco industry marketing has played a role. The migration of African-Americans to urban manufacturing centers after World War II, coupled with the emergence of black-oriented newspapers and magazines, created various opportunities for niche marketing. In the case of cigarettes, with research showing a slight black preference for Kools, a menthol brand, the industry saw an opening to appeal to black smokers. Or at least that is the explanation central to a paper on the history of menthol marketing by Phillip S. Gardiner, the research administrator of a tobacco disease program at the University of California, Oakland. The paper notes that Elston Howard, who became the first black player for the New York Yankees in 1955, was hired as a Kool spokesman. By 1978 Lorillard, Newport’s maker, had borrowed the singer James Brown’s hit single, “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” for its marketing message, “Newport is a whole new bag of menthol smoking.” Dr. Gardiner’s paper, published in 2004 in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research, also notes that by the 1980s, Brown & Williamson, the maker of Kool, had started its Kool Jazz Festival to appeal to the same market. More recently, hip-hop artists have helped promote Kool, now the third-biggest menthol brand, which was acquired in 2004 by R. J. Reynolds. Dr. Brian A. Primack, assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the author of a study published last year on the concentration of tobacco signs and billboards in African-American neighborhoods, said observational evidence suggested that about three-fourths of outdoor cigarette advertising in African-American neighborhoods was for menthol brands. Magazine advertising for cigarettes has declined since the 1998 tobacco industry settlement with state attorneys general. But the portion devoted to menthol brands — only 12 percent in 1998 — had grown to 76 percent by 2006, according to an recent analysis by the Tobacco Control Research Program at Harvard. Lorillard’s Newport, the country’s second-biggest selling cigarette and the leading menthol brand, is the best seller among African-Americans. “It’s very much marketed with youth orientation, and the primary distribution is in delis and bodegas,” said K. Michael Cummings, the chairman of the department of health behavior at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo. The tobacco companies do not agree that black smokers are a special target for menthol marketing. A Lorillard spokesman, Michael W. Robinson, said that Lorillard, a subsidiary of Loews Corporation, marketed its product across a wide array of ethnicities to adult smokers. “Lorillard wants the widest customer base possible among adults,” Mr. Robinson said. He said that only 15 percent of the company’s advertising budget is directed at the African-American market segment. David P. Howard, a spokesman for R. J. Reynolds, a unit of Reynolds American, which markets menthol brands including Kool and Salem, said his company also advertised to a wide range of audiences, because with so many more white smokers than black, only 18 percent of R. J. Reynolds’ menthol sales are to African-Americans. But he acknowledged that the company does try to appeal to black smokers: “Would we like African-Americans to choose R. J. Reynolds brands? Yes, we would. Do we have marketing and communications that that audience can identify with? Yes, we do.”