The Importance Of Tobacco Use

842 Words2 Pages

In the United States, great efforts have been made to reduce morbidity and mortality from tobacco use, but progress in decreasing the prevalence of tobacco use has slowed. Annually, tobacco use results in nearly 500,000 deaths, and is one of the primary causes of avoidable morbidity and mortality in society.1 Healthcare professionals such as physicians can make a positive impact on the rates of tobacco use cessation among patient smokers by using proper counseling.2 Physicians have been trained to make such interventions during scheduled appointment with patients by using the 5 A’s approach, which involves asking patients about tobacco use during each visit, advising those who use tobacco to quit, assessing readiness to quit, assisting with quitting, and arranging a follow-up appointment to determine the success of the approach.3 However, a very limited amount of tobacco users seem to be receiving the evidence-based counseling and medications designed to help them quit.4
Pharmacists can also play a role in clinician-led tobacco cessation counseling; studies have shown that they have genuine interest in this activity.5 Pharmacies can serve as great access points for patients seeking smoking cessation help.6 In addition to being medication experts, pharmacists are the only healthcare professionals who have routine contact with a variety of patients and are knowledgeable regarding both prescription and nonprescription tobacco cessation medications.3,6-8 A large portion of the uninsured and undeserved population frequent community pharmacies. This population is typically prone to higher rates of tobacco use and prevalence.8 However, many barriers have been cited to pharmacist-led tobacco cessation counseling. Multiple studies menti...

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...access and easier readability and weaknesses like platform incompatibility with practictioners’ office.19 In addition, medication therapy management (MTM) practices have required increased development of HIEs to acquire additional clinical information regarding patients.17 Studies have shown pharmacists are more willing to welcome new HIT applications when their intended use is patient care focused rather than dispensing focused.20 The specific use of HIT to refer patients electronically for tobacco cessation counseling has not been extensively studied in community pharmacy settings. As a result, the primary objective of this study was to explore potential approaches, barriers, and perception changes of community pharmacy professionals (CPPs) regarding utilizing HIT in community pharmacies to disseminate evidence-based tobacco cessation support to patient smokers.

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