The goal of the Addressing Tobacco in Managed Care (ATMC) program is to promote the integration of effective smoking cessation interventions into the basic health care provided by managed care organizations (MCOs). To achieve this goal, the program awards grants to evaluate the effectiveness of replicable organizational strategies that lead health care providers, practices and plans to adopt and adhere to the recommendations of the U.S. Public Health Service Clinical Practice Guideline, Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence. The projects funded under this initiative examine the impact of organizational strategies (including clinical, financial, and administrative practices) on such outcomes as smoker identification, tobacco use reduction among patients, rates of clinician intervention, and costs of intervention efforts. The research program spans the full spectrum of MCO models so that results may benefit a wide range of providers and health plans.

Addressing Tobacco in Managed Care: American Association of Health Plan’s National Technical Assistance Office
Program Directors: Barbara Lardy, MPH and Anne Cahill Krause, MPH
7/1/97 – 7/1/05**

To promote the adoption of innovative approaches for helping Americans enrolled in managed care organizations to avoid the harm caused by tobacco. The National Technical Assistance Office (NTAO) of the Addressing Tobacco in Managed Care program: (1) published and disseminate a newsletter that covers all aspects of the program; (2) implements a Benchmarking Awards Program to identify and acknowledge managed care achievements in tobacco control; (3) conducts annual survey of health plans regarding tobacco control efforts to develop and organize the annual Addressing Tobacco in Managed Care conference; (4) work with the Health Alliance Plan to develop and expand a resource clearinghouse on tobacco prevention and cessation, with special emphasis on tobacco in managed care issues; (5) manages a Web site that provides information on program activities; and (6) updates and expands the key contact network and provide information to the list serve and electronic bulletin board.

Bridging the Gap: Research Informing Practice for Healthy Youth Behavior
Program Directors: Frank Chaloupka, PhD, University of Illinois at Chicago, and Lloyd Johnston, PhD, University of Michigan
8/1/97 – 2/28/06**

Bridging the Gap (BTG) is an interdisciplinary partnership of nationally recognized substance abuse experts, involving researchers from community health, economics, etiology, epidemiology, law, marketing, political science, public health, public policy, psychology, survey research, and other fields. BTG builds on existing information about youth alcohol, tobacco and illegal drug use by collecting data on trends, markets, policies, legislation, enforcement, treatment, educational programs, advertising and other environmental factors. The primary goal of BTG is to evaluate the relative effectiveness of specific prevention programs and policies in reducing youth substance use and abuse, as well as to determine the impact of advertising, promotion, and other environmental influences that can contribute to increases in use. BTG has two project arms: ImpacTeen: A Policy Research Partnership to Reduce Youth Substance Use, and Youth, Education and Society (YES!). ImpacTeen is administered by the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Health Research and Policy Centers. YES! is administered by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research.

The Center for Tobacco Cessation (CTC)
Center Director: William Furmanski, MPH, American Cancer Society
2/15/02 – 2005**

The Center for Tobacco Cessation (CTC) helps smokers quit by partnering with business, healthcare, public health and community leaders to promote proven and effective tobacco cessation treatments and policies. CTC accomplishes its work through a policy coalition, ad hoc workgroups, and by developing and disseminating tobacco cessation information. For example, CTC has established a Washington, DC-based coalition to advocate for the adoption and implementation of effective tobacco dependence treatment in the public and private sectors. Often, CTC convenes roundtable meetings and advisory groups with leaders in the public health, health care, and business sectors to explore tobacco cessation issues such as how statewide tobacco cessation services are organized, delivered and financed, what models businesses should utilize for tobacco cessation coverage for employees, the emergence of tobacco telephone help lines as a means to provide counseling to smokers, and the issues faced by underserved and minority populations in obtaining cessation services. In addition, CTC distributes the latest information on tobacco cessation issues, including new research, policy matters, and media coverage, as part of its work to translate complicated information on effective tobacco dependence treatment. An electronic newsletter is widely distributed free of charge twice each month. The electronic newsletter and CTC’s web site serve as companions to a series of timely and compelling fact sheets, policy briefs, reports and peer-reviewed articles.

CTC is a program focused solely on tobacco cessation and charged with bridging scientific knowledge and policy practice through the joint support of the American Cancer Society and The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Helping Young Smokers Quit: Improving Treatment of Youth Tobacco Use and Dependence
Program Director: Susan Curry, PhD, University of Illinois at Chicago
8/1/01 – 2/28/2008**

The Helping Young Smokers Quit (HYSQ) initiative is a four-year, two-phase program designed to address the dire need to develop and disseminate effective, developmentally appropriate cessation programs for the substantial numbers of adolescents who smoke and try unsuccessfully to quit. Phase I of the HYSQ initiative will identify and characterize existing smoking cessation programs for youth in a representative sample of over 400 communities in the US. Program surveys will describe major program offerings, both promising and potentially harmful treatment practices, and the resources and constraints of the “real world” settings in which these services are offered. In Phase II, standard measures and methodological approaches will be used to conduct evaluations of a strategic mix of potential "best" and "worst" practices now being used by youth cessation programs across the US to treat a variety of adolescent populations, including traditionally underserved and high-risk groups (i.e., low-income, minority).

The results of this initiative will help to fill a gap in knowledge about the types and elements of youth cessation programs that are currently being offered, those that are effective and ineffective, and point to promising directions for future research and programming. The outcomes are also intended to help states, communities, schools, and other community-based and youth-serving organizations adopt and implement programs that work, and provide tools and findings to improve the future research and program self-evaluations. This project is co-funded by RWJF, CDC, and NCI.

National Center for Tobacco-Free Kids
Center Director: Matthew Myers, JD, Center for Tobacco-Free Kids
2/1/96 – 1/31/07**

The National Center for Tobacco-Free Kids is a freestanding, privately funded, communications-oriented organization that focuses on reducing tobacco use, particularly among youth. The center works to minimize the harm caused by tobacco through national communications strategies and public awareness campaigns and by assisting state efforts to develop, adopt and implement programs, public policies and social environment changes that prevent and reduce tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke.

National Spit Tobacco Education Program (NSTEP)
Project Director: Robert Klaus, PhD, Oral Health America
4/1/00 – 07/31/2005**

NSTEP was founded in 1994 to prevent people, especially young people, from starting to use spit tobacco, and to help users quit. It is recognized as the only national program to focus on the health risks of spit tobacco use, and for taking significant strides in breaking the long-standing link between spit tobacco and baseball. With NSTEP coalitions in California, Colorado, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Texas and West Virginia, and budding coalitions in Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Montana, Ohio, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wyoming, NSTEP is using grassroots efforts to build a nation-wide network of spit tobacco education and cessation resources.

Partners with Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Centers: Advancing Transdisciplinary Science and Policy Studies
Project Director: Robin Mermelstein, PhD, University of Illinois at Chicago
5/1/99 – 3/ 07**

This program seeks to capitalize on unprecedented opportunities to apply and integrate advances in molecular biology, neuroscience, genetics, and behavioral science to the challenge of tobacco control, focusing on the significant knowledge gaps that stand in the way of developing more effective strategies for reducing tobacco use in the United States. Foundation support will seek to accelerate the real-world application of research findings and strengthen this endeavor by funding: (1) dissemination and policy studies that pave the way for the application of research findings and for future research programs; (2) communications activities designed to develop a closer relationship between researchers in all the centers and those responsible for program/policy development and implementation, including efforts to translate scientific breakthroughs into language and concepts that policy makers, the public, and media can understand.

Prescription for Health: Promoting Healthy Behaviors in Primary Care Research Networks
Program Director: Larry Green, MD
8/1/02 – 7/31/07**

The aims of this 5-year initiative, funded in collaboration with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, is to identify practical innovations that will improve the integration of evidence-based interventions for two or more behavioral risk factors – tobacco use/dependence, sedentary lifestyle unhealthy diet, risky alcohol use – into routine primary care. Innovations should focus the delivery, feasibility and reach of health behavior change interventions, including for tobacco dependence treatment, but in ways that break down typical single-risk intervention silos. The idea behind working in practice-based research networks is that how easily we can “get research into practice” for tobacco dependence treatment and other health risks depends fundamentally on how well we can “get practice into research.” Any Practice-Based Research Network (PBRN) with headquarters in the US is eligible to submit a proposal.

Smoke-Free Families: National Partnership to Help Pregnant Smokers Quit
Program Directors: Cathy Melvin, PhD, Sheps Center for Health Services at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and Kay Kahler Vose, Porter Novelli, Inc.
12/1/99 – 6/30/07**

The National Partnership to Help Pregnant Smokers Quit is a coalition of diverse organizations that have joined forces to improve the health of this and future generations by increasing the number of pregnant smokers who quit smoking. Through a nationwide effort to reach women, providers and communities, the National Partnership hopes to ensure that all pregnant women in the United States are screened for tobacco use, and receive best-practice cessation counseling as part of their prenatal care.

Smoke-Free Families - National Research Office
Program Directors: Robert Goldenberg, MD, University of Alabama, Birmingham and Lorraine Klerman, PhD, Brandeis University
5/1/93 – 4/30/07**

The aim of this program is to reduce rates of smoking in families in the United States by supporting research to develop and evaluate effective new interventions to help women quit smoking before, during, and after pregnancy. Pregnancy, and the periods immediately preceding and following it, provide unique “teachable moments” to help women stop smoking. Women are highly motivated to stop smoking during these times, when they are concerned not only about their own health, but also about the health of their infants. Many women who do not otherwise seek or receive primary care or preventive services can be reached during family planning and prenatal care visits, with follow up later in hospitals, pediatric offices, health clinics, day care programs, and during nursing visits to their homes. Providers and health care systems have especially compelling reasons to intervene during these periods given the many immediate health benefits of quitting.

Smoke-Free Families - National Dissemination Office
Program Director: Cathy Melvin, PhD
12/1/99 – 12/30/07**

This multi-component program has two aims: to promote the dissemination of existing best-practice treatments for pregnant smokers in prenatal care and to support innovative research to discover more powerful "breakthrough" treatments. The National Dissemination Office is funded to build capacity, demand and policy supports for proven interventions, and to conduct research on the systems changes needed to implement them. The National Program Office supports innovative research demonstrations with promise to produce the next generation of more effective treatments.

Substance Abuse Policy Research Program (SAPRP)
Program Directors: David Altman, PhD, Center for Creative Leadership, and Marjorie Gutman, PhD, University of Pennsylvania Treatment Research Institute
8/1/94 – 6/30/07**

The Substance Abuse Policy Research Program (SAPRP) is a $54 million initiative that focuses on analyzing public and private policies aimed at reducing the harm caused by alcohol, illicit drugs, tobacco, and multiple-substance use. The goal of SAPRP-funded research is to produce policy-relevant information about ways to reduce the harm caused by the use of tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs in the United States. The research is intended to encourage experts in public health, law, political science, medicine, sociology, criminal justice, economics, and other behavioral and policy sciences to address issues related to substance abuse. Technical assistance and direction for SAPRP is provided by Center for Creative Leadership.

Smoking Cessation Leadership Center
Program Director: Steven Schroeder, MD, University of California San Francisco
11/1/2002 – 1/31/08**

This project created the Center for Health Professions Leadership on Tobacco Cessation to work with various health professional organizations (dentists, dental hygienists, pharmacists, etc.) and institutions to increase their motivation and capability to assist smokers with quitting. The Center will stimulate and support the development, adoption, and dissemination of innovative, potentially wide-reaching models for mobilizing health professionals, thereby increasing the health professionals' abilities to advise and assist their patients with quitting, and increasing the number of successful quit attempts.

Tobacco Etiology Research Network (TERN)
Program Director: Richard Clayton, PhD, University of Kentucky School of Public Health
2/1/96 – 10/31/05**

TERN is a transdisciplinary research network that is intended to achieve major scientific advantages in understanding the transitions from initial to regular use to dependence on tobacco and cessation among adolescents and young adults. Findings and models developed by TERN have been used by funders to define developmentally appropriate measures of youth quitting and to guide the development of innovative cessation strategies.

Tobacco-free nurses: Helping nurses quit
Program Director: Linda Sarna, University of California Los Angeles
8/12003 – 7/31/06**

This grant focuses on increasing awareness of tobacco use and quit resources among nurses, removing barriers to successful quit attempts, and assisting nurses who smoke to quit. The three primary aims are to: (1) expand nurses' understanding of tobacco use and tobacco control; (2) support and assist smoking cessation efforts of nurses (RNs and LPNs) and nursing students; and (3) enhance the culture of nurses as advocates for tobacco prevention and control. Specific project activities will include the development and launch of a media campaign targeting nurses who smoke, development and dissemination of nurse-specific cessation resources (Internet, counseling, etc.), and development and implementation of training modules for nursing leadership to increase supportive quit environments.

Tobacco Policy Change: A Collaboration for Healthier Communities and States
Program Director: Michelle Larkin, RN, MS, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
6/1/04 – 5/3/08**

The program is designed to support tobacco control advocacy to reduce tobacco-related exposure and harm. There is a particular emphasis on advocacy work in communities or states most affected by tobacco-related disease and exposure. The program is also designed to leverage the skills and expertise of RWJF-funded technical assistance providers to assist grantees under this initiative.

Under this initiative, RWJF is specifically interested in funding and collaborating with regional groups, community-based organizations, private sector partners, and organizations with diverse public health representation (e.g. racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, sexual orientation) to strengthen the depth and breadth of state and community advocacy efforts for sustained attention to tobacco control policy. It is essential that groups have previous success with policy advocacy to be considered for funding. Program grantees will be provided support to address one of the following tobacco policies proven to decrease use or sustain tobacco control work at the local, regional or national level:

• Comprehensive clean indoor air laws.
• Increases in local or state tobacco excise taxes or other product price increases, with a specific focus on allocating at least a portion of these resources to tobacco prevention and treatment programs and other health care issues (e.g., access to coverage).
• Increases in public funding of tobacco-related programming (including expanded and more equitable access to treatment for tobacco addiction) for those states receiving Master Settlement Agreement (MSA and excise tax revenue.
• Public and private cessation coverage for populations most affected by tobacco.
• Restrictions in tobacco advertising, product placement, licensing and land use.

Why Youth Don’t Quit? National Survey Assessing Youth Smoking Cessation Needs and Practices
Project Director: Gary Giovino, PhD, Roswell Park Cancer Institute
7/1/00 – 2/28/06**

This two-year telephone survey will query a cohort of smokers ages 16 to 20 years at baseline about their smoking cessation activity. Findings will provide national estimates of quitting activity, help elucidate factors associated with the natural history of quitting among adolescents and young adults, and will clarify preferences for different types of assisted quitting interventions among this age group. This survey is funded by RWJF with some co-funding by the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

Youth Tobacco Cessation Collaborative

The Youth Tobacco Cessation Collaborative, formed in 1998, includes representatives of major organizations that fund research, program, and policy initiatives related to controlling youth tobacco use. YTCC works to establish and sustain cross-sharing among researchers and implementers to sustain team-building and coordination across involved agencies and organizations, and to track progress and build toward cessation goals.

** Please note all dates are approximate and subject to change.