This NIH-funded study is testing the effectiveness of using interactive voice response (IVR) technology to enhance phone-based counseling services. This study will use IVR technology to monitor quitting progress among participants and identify relapse risk as it develops. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions (high vs moderate intensity IVR monitoring) or usual care. Those participants randomized to the IVR conditions will receive between 10-20 IVR assessment calls during the program. Outcomes will be evaluated at 6 and 12 months.

This study is being implemented in in two health care systems. Each study is a group-randomized trial that is conducted in 10 community health clinics. Clinics are part of the Harris County Hospital District (HCHD) and Kelsey-Seybold clinics,. The HCHD provides care to a very large, racially/ethnically diverse, low socioeconomic status, underserved population of patients residing in the Houston metropolitan area. The Kelsey-Seybold Clinics serve a typically higher-economic status population. Clinics are randomized to either an “Ask-Advise-Connect” or an “Ask-Advise-Refer” dissemination approach. Smoking status will be assessed and recorded in the medical record at every patient visit, and smokers will be connected (in the Ask-Advise-Connect condition) or referred (in the Ask-Advise-Refer control condition) to the Quitline through an automated link. Smokers in the Ask-Advise-Connect condition will be called proactively by the Quitline, and smokers in the Ask-Advise-Refer condition will be encouraged to call the Quitline on their own.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a multicomponent protocol (SBIRT+NRT) delivered by a tobacco interventionist. This includes a basic Brief Negotiation Interview (BNI) performed in the emergency department with referral to a primary care provider, along with a directed referral to the state Smokers’ Quitline, initiation of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) during the ED visit, provision of a starter kit of NRT (patch + gum or patch + lozenge), provision of written materials, followed by a telephone booster intervention performed by trained nurses 3 days post-visit. The SBIRT+NRT will be compared to standard care with assessments (SC-A) and without (SC-NA). In a randomized, controlled clinical trial smokers will be assigned to one of the 3 conditions.

The goal of this pilot study is to examine the feasibility of delivering an enhanced quitline-based smoking cessation intervention to patients with nonmetastatic lung cancer in the outpatient oncology setting. Patients will be randomized to the intervention or a usual care control condition and measures of acceptability, recruitment, retention, confirmed smoking status, and patient symptoms and quality of life will be assessed for a follow-up period of three months.

This study will evaluate a novel method for linking smokers with smoking cessation treatment after they leave the hospital. If effective, this intervention could have strong public health impact because many hospital patients smoke, the health effects of continuing to smoke are devastating, and helping smokers obtain cessation treatment will save many lives.

In collaboration with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, the study team is testing a newly emerging counseling approach called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) as a telephone-delivered smoking cessation intervention. Through a 2-arm randomized trial, the effectiveness of ACT counseling (experimental arm) will be compared to the CBT counseling (control arm) offered through a state quitline.