Encouraging smokers to talk with their physicians about quitting.

OVER THE NEXT FEW MONTHS, PHYSICIANS MAY see an increase in patients asking for help in quitting smoking. Why? The Office on Smoking and Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently launched the second stage of its national media campaign, Tips from Former Smokers (Tips). Some of the ads include a new call to action with the message, “You can quit. Talk with your doctor for help.” This “talk with your doctor” initiative provides physicians with a golden opportunity to help more patients quit smoking. The Tips campaign motivates smokers to quit and directs smokers who want help to evidence-based cessation resources. The campaign ads feature real stories from former smokers about how serious smoking-related diseases have affected their lives and their families. The campaign includes both well-known consequences of smoking such as lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, as well as lesser-known consequences such as stroke, heart disease, head and neck cancer, Buerger disease, and exacerbation of asthma and diabetes. Stories emphasize the morbidity caused by smoking, rather than mortality, based on what we heard from smokers during formative testing. The campaign includes ads for television, radio, billboards, newspapers, and magazines, as well as for digital and social media channels. Each Tips ad ends by providing a cessation resource for smokers who want help quitting: 1-800-QUIT-NOW, which directs callers to their state quitlines for free cessation counseling, or the Tips campaign website, which provides information on the campaign and practical quitting advice. National television ads during the week of May 27 will include the “talk with your doctor” call-to-action message, and it will continue to be promoted for the remaining 3 weeks of the campaign. This message is intended to empower patients to ask their physicians for advice about quitting smoking and to make it easier for clinicians to engage smokers in this conversation. How can physicians use the Tips campaign to raise the topic of quitting with patients who smoke? First, physicians can ask patients if they have seen any of the Tips ads, what they think of the ads, and if the ads motivated them to try to quit. Physicians can also underscore the truth of the stories in the ads, based on their experience with patients who smoke. If patients have not seen the ads, physicians can encourage them to view the ads. Physicians can also place Tips posters (available from the health care practitioner section of the Tips website) in waiting rooms and examination rooms. What can a physician do when a patient asks for help in quitting smoking? The Tips campaign provides a great opportunity to discuss a patient’s concerns about smoking and quitting, as well as to personalize the risks the patient faces from smoking, and strongly encourage the patient to quit. Physicians can also reassure patients who smoke that, although quitting is difficult, they can succeed, reminding them that more than half of all Americans who ever smoked have successfully quit. In addition, physicians can encourage their patients to use evidence-based treatments, including individual, group, and telephone counseling and the 7 US Food and Drug Administration−approved medications, and let patients know these methods can double their chances of success. Patients can access more cessation resources at the Tips campaign website, including materials and links to the National Cancer Institute’s cessation programs. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been working with numerous professional associations, such as the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Physicians, and the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, to get the word out about the “talk with your doctor” initiative. For example, a scripted card is available to assist physicians in navigating the process of intervening with patients who smoke. To support the “talk with your doctor” initiative, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has developed a special section of the Tips campaign website for health care practitioners, which includes links to materials and resources.