UW-CTRI continues to partner with Aurora Health Care and Dean Clinic throughout southern Wisconsin on Breaking Addiction to Tobacco for Health (BREATHE), the first study to test a chronic-care model for patients who relapse to smoking with a factorial study design. Under the project, UW-CTRI has worked with Epic Systems of Verona to modify the electronic health record (EHR) systems at participating health clinics. Any smoker who visits a participating clinic, regardless of the initial reason for the visit, has been invited to get treatment through BREATHE.
Early Success
So far, 4173 people have been referred to the study and 1216 have enrolled. Enrollment in the smoking cessation project is complete with 624 participants–including Gary of Hartford, who quit smoking and shared his story. Enrollment is more than half complete for the project designed to motivate smokers to quit, with 280 participants. Another project that looks at long-term quitting is 31 percent full with 312 participants.
About 65 percent of participants have shown up for their first study visit. It’s all thanks to a $12 million grant from the National Cancer Institute and National Institutes of Health. Many patients have expressed their appreciation for BREATHE, including Behneke.
“What makes this program to me so special is I had every reason for a lot of years to quit smoking and attempted to and it didn’t work,” he said.
“This did.”