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Healthcare professional intervention has a beneficial impact on smoking cessation, even if the contact is very brief.Physicians have been the main focus of attempts to promote smoking cessation counselling, but the accessibility and high level of trust accorded to pharmacists suggests they may also be in a good position to provide effective advice.Pharmacists feel they lack the necessary skills to provide this service, however, and there is also a misperception that counselling is not needed.The National Smoking Cessation Certification Programme was set up through a partnership between the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy and SmithKline Beecham to address these barriers.This programme aims to train pharmacists in effective cessation counselling and covers the influence of smoking on health, complexities of the smoking behaviour, stages of the quitting process, barriers to quitting, cognitive and behavioural coping techniques and smoking cessation pharmacology.Over 5,000 pharmacists and other healthcare professionals have undertaken this programme, and outcome studies are now underway to assess the results on cessation rates.Evidence suggests that such a strategy can show a favourable comparison with screening for hypertension and hypercholesterolaemia in terms of cost per life year saved.Plans are now underway to adapt the programme for Europe.
Frank Vitale (Fri,) studied this question.