TY - JOUR T1 - Improving Smoking Cessation Counseling Using a Point-of-Care Health Intervention Tool (IT): From the Virginia Practice Support and Research Network (VaPSRN) JF - The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine JO - J Am Board Fam Med SP - 116 LP - 125 DO - 10.3122/jabfm.2013.02.110078 VL - 26 IS - 2 AU - Scott M. Strayer AU - Steven W. Heim AU - Lisa K. Rollins AU - Marit L. Bovbjerg AU - Mohan Nadkarni AU - David B. Waters AU - Fern R. Hauck AU - John B. Schorling Y1 - 2013/03/01 UR - http://www.jabfm.org/content/26/2/116.abstract N2 - Purpose: Primary care practices are an ideal setting for reducing national smoking rates because >70% of smokers visit their physician annually, yet smoking cessation counseling is inconsistently delivered to patients. We designed and created a novel software program for handheld computers and hypothesized that it would improve clinicians' ability to provide patient-tailored smoking cessation counseling at the point of care. Methods: A handheld computer software program was created based on smoking cessation guidelines and an adaptation of widely accepted behavioral change theories. The tool was evaluated using a validated before/after survey to measure physician smoking cessation counseling behaviors, knowledge, and comfort/self-efficacy. Results: Participants included 17 physicians (mean age, 41 years; 71% male; 5 resident physicians) from a practice-based research network. After 4 months of use in direct patient care, physicians were more likely to advise patients to stop smoking (P = .049) and reported an increase in use of the “5 As” (P = .03). Improved self-efficacy in counseling patients regarding smoking cessation (P = .006) was seen, as was increased comfort in providing follow-up to patients (P = .04). Conclusions: Use of a handheld computer software tool improved smoking cessation counseling among physicians and shows promise for translating evidence about smoking cessation counseling into practice and educational settings. ER -