Philippe Boucher's Rendez-vous with . . . Scott Leischow
Rendez-vous with . . . Scott Leischow
Chief of the Tobacco Control Research Branch at the National Cancer Institute
Bethesda, Maryland, USA
leischos@mail.nih.gov
By Philippe Boucher
Rendez-vous 115
Thursday, November 15 2001
PB : Thank you Scott for accepting our rendez-vous.
May I ask you to introduce yourself ?
Scott Leischow: I became Chief of the Tobacco Control Research Branch in the Behavioral Research Program, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences at NCI in July 2000. Prior to taking the NCI position, I was an Associate Professor of Public Health at the College of Public Health, University of Arizona, and the Director of the Arizona Program for Nicotine and Tobacco Research.
I received my undergraduate degree in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin - Parkside, and my M.A. and Ph.D. in Health Education from the University of Maryland at College Park. I then completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Behavioral Pharmacology at the Behavioral Pharmacology Research Unit, Johns Hopkins University Department of Psychiatry. My research interests have been focused on the areas of nicotine behavioral pharmacology, tobacco cessation, and the translation of clinical smoking cessation research into community practice. In addition to conducting seminal clinical research studies evaluating the safety and efficacy of potential smoking cessation medications, I also played a senior role in the development of several statewide tobacco treatment and evaluation programs in Arizona, including the creation of the Arizona Smokers Helpline.
Q1. You attended the conference organized in Barcelona in early September by the European network of Quitlines. Can you tell us about this meeting?
SL: There are many quitlines to help smokers quit in Europe. We know that telephone quitlines can be an effective way to help smokers quit, so it is encouraging that so many European countries have developed quitlines - even in countries where there are few public health efforts to help smokers quit. The September conference was an opportunity to discuss how the quitlines are working, and to exchange ideas on how to make them more effective for helping smokers quit. I participated in the conference so that I could present a summary of the quitlines in the U.S., and so that I could learn about the Europe effort and carry that progress to colleagues in the U.S.
Q2. How do you assess the situation of quitlines in the US? Is there any type of specialized network for people to gather/exchange information about quitlines?
SL: There are over 20 comprehensive quitlines in the U.S., and more that provide limited services. However, right now there is no organization that helps U.S. quitlines exchange information. The Barcelona meeting provided a wonderful example of how the U.S. can learn from the European experience!
Q3. I was impressed by the impact the offering of low cost nrts had and still has on quitline callers and quitters in New Zealand. Was this correlation discussed in Barcelona? Are there other examples of coupling the services provided by the quitline with the availability of cheaply priced nrts? Are similar developments conceivable in the US?
SL: The role of NRT and quitline services was not systematically discussed at the conference, but there are some states in the U.S. that couple inexpensive NRT with use of the quitline. The most prominent example of that is in California. Since each state in the U.S. has different policies, it is unclear that there will be one way to handle this throughout the U.S.
Q4. Did the conference develop some sort of best practices for organizing and operating efficient quitlines?
SL: The conference did not develop a specific set of best practices, but the CDC in the U.S. is in the process of developing a "tool kit" to help organizations develop and run effective quitlines. This will likely not be available until the spring.
Q5. Can you tell us about the TCRB and what your priorities are for the moment?
SL: The Tobacco Control Research Branch has several priorities. We are actively involved in many areas of tobacco control research, including research on state and community interventions for tobacco control, research to understand and treat tobacco dependence - particularly adolescent smokers, transdisciplinary tobacco research that helps us to understand how different scientific disciplines can help each other, and global tobacco research. We are also working to support the testing of new tobacco products so that we can better understand the health effects of new products being released that are purported to result in reduced harm. We are also working closely with the Cancer Information Service (within NCI), which is a national telephone support system that assists smokers who want to quit.
Q6. Is there anything else you would like to add?
SL : The use of telephone support to help smokers quit has the potential to significantly benefit public health. It is important that we learn from all the quitlines that are in place around the world, so that new quitlines can benefit from their experience.
PB: Thank you Scott for taking the time to be with us today.
Rendez-vous is supported by a contract from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
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