Thoracic oncology
CHEST releases its newest edition of the tobacco treatment toolkit
Tobacco remains the greatest single cause of morbidity and mortality. Left unaddressed, tobacco is projected to kill 1 billion people worldwide this century. Despite this, only 5% of all tobacco-dependent patients in the United States receive both a medication and even minimal counseling for their addiction.
Matthew Bars
Tobacco dependence is a severe chronic life-threatening disease. It is with this focus that CHEST released its latest iteration of the Tobacco Dependence Treatment Toolkit. This edition focuses on treating tobacco addiction as a chronic disease, titrating all seven FDA-approved medications toward tobacco abstinence, and medical practice/hospital reimbursement.
The CHEST toolkit is divided into eight sections: Motivational Interviewing, Testing/Diagnostics, Treatment Basics (pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic), Treatment Pearls, Clinical Vignettes and Studies, Special Populations, Treatment for e-Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products, and Insurance Billing and Telehealth.
Special attention is given to tobacco addiction diagnostics and using these findings to treat the chronic disease of tobacco addiction just like any other chronic disease by aggressively and successfully titrating FDA-approved medications in various permutations and combinations, as needed. The therapeutic goal is assisting the patient to feel normal, minimizing withdrawal throughout the process, so that tobacco abstinence can ultimately be obtained and maintained.
Clinicians and medical centers can receive insurance reimbursement for these diagnostics and associated interventions. This includes both in-office procedures and via telehealth. The CHEST toolkit discusses both in-depth.
A new unique associated feature is our Clinician Interactive Toolkit. This multimedia interactive platform reviews clinician interactions with a tobacco-dependent patient via avatars and can be found here: Clinician Interactive Toolkit.
https://foundation.chestnet.org/lung-health-a-z/smoking-and-tobacco-use/?Item=For-Clinicians
The American College of Chest Physicians’ Tobacco Treatment Toolkit can be downloaded here.
The American College of Chest Physicians’ Tobacco Treatment Toolkit project also included the development of a new video game for tobacco users. Smoke Out: Tobacco Pirates is available for download for free to all at the Apple App Store for iPhones and iPads, and at Google Play (play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gforcelearning.smokeout&hl=en_US&gl=US). The game is fun, the theme is immersive, and the educational content is specifically focused on tobacco users, although clinicians will enjoy it too.
Matthew Bars, MS
Steering Committee Member