Boosting your efforts to address tobacco use and dependence with practical offerings for health care systems change, provided by ICSI in partnership with ClearWay Minnesota.SM

Updates on the Work

Tri-County Health Care Tackles Process Change Together
A multidisciplinary team at Tri-County Health Care in Wadena is working with ICSI to focus on tobacco systems change.  Doing process mapping together resulted in several "aha" moments, including ways their EHR can support the tobacco work in various departments.

Process Mapping in Action
The Tri-County Health Care Team

"It was eye opening to conduct process mapping together as a team," commented Jose Alba, director of ambulatory services, and Medley Shamp, lead care coordinator. "This experience gave us permission to ask each other questions. As we do more process or workflow mapping, we will become more comfortable with this work and challenge our thinking. This is changing our culture."

Keeping the Momentum Going
New learning and networking opportunities in 2017-2018 will include onsite clinic offerings, events, and practice facilitation. More details are coming your way soon! These offerings have been informed by input from workshop attendees over the past year, along with our Tobacco Health Systems Change Interest Group, a richly diverse group representing health care clinics and systems (including community health centers), health plans, state representatives and associations, who are all engaged in various tobacco cessation, control, and or health systems change efforts.
Bright Spot

Motivational Interviewing Videos & More 
The  American Indian Cancer Foundation (AICAF)  has assembled a number of resources to support providers serving American Indian populations in tobacco cessation efforts. These include a series of three videos focused on clinical motivational interviewing for smoking cessation: "Smoking as a Normative Behavior," "Smoking and Diabetes," and "Making a Quit Plan." The videos and other resources are available  here . AICAF is partnering with ICSI through this Tobacco Health Systems Change effort to strengthen its work with clinics and providers.

Learning Opportunities

QUITPLAN Services Teleconference
Tuesday July 11, 2017 | 3 - 4 pm CT

This informational session will provide an overview of what tobacco users experience when they call QUITPLAN Services. It will include a recording of a mock registration call and a coaching session, followed by Q & A with QUITPLAN Services staff. Designed for anyone who shares information about or refers people to QUITPLAN Services. Please RSVP by email to Pamela Jensen by Thursday, July 6.

Counting Quitting: Tobacco Cessation and Quality Measures Webinar
Wednesday, July 12, 2017 | 1 - 2 pm CT

Join the American Lung Association of the Upper Midwest to learn what quality measures are, why they are important for tobacco cessation, and how Oregon implemented them in their Medicaid program.  Only a little over half of smokers receive advice to quit from their doctor, despite the majority of smokers wanting to quit. Newer provider payments models attempting to pay for value rather than volume try to incentivize healthy behaviors and prevention.

Featured speakers: Rob Adsit, MEd, director of education and outreach, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention; and Nancy Goff, health systems policy specialist,  Oregon Health Authority.


The Truth About Menthol Tobacco Webinar
Thursday, July 13, 2017 | Noon - 1 p.m. CT

This free webinar will explore how menthol cigarettes make it easier for youth to begin smoking and perpetuate health inequities. Menthol-flavored tobacco products are one of the tobacco industry's most important products, but most people have no idea how and why menthol became the industry's secret weapon for getting kids hooked and keeping tobacco the #1 cause of preventable cause of death and disease in Minnesota. CME and MOC available. Supported by the Twin Cities Medical Society's Physician Advocacy Network.


From the Field

Mille Lacs Band of Ojibway: A Case Study
The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe (MLBO) received a two-year grant award* from ClearWay Minnesota SM to implement health systems changes that would improve MLBO's ability to address commercial tobacco use among their community members and integrate referrals to the Smoking Cessation Program into the medical clinics.

MLBO's key strategies for this work were to:
  • Establish a cross-disciplinary tobacco team
  • Embed commercial tobacco dependence treatment into the clinical standard of care
  • Conduct community and health system outreach
Read the MLBO case study for successes, challenges, and lessons learned.

* In 2014, ClearWay Minnesota SM funded three organizations for two years to help them improve their ability to assess and address tobacco use with their patients. An external evaluator conducted a process evaluation, and Clearway Minnesota SM worked with grantees to develop individual case studies that tell their stories.

Resources For Your Toolkit

These resources are curated from what others have found to be useful. Below are some noteworthy recent additions that address identified needs. More are available in the Tools & Resources section of our website.

Rx for Change: A Comprehensive, Turn-key Program
These materials were designed to enhance the tobacco cessation education of health professionals. Rx for Change, which draws heavily from the Clinical Practice Guideline for Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence, is a comprehensive, turn-key program for training students and licensed clinicians in virtually any health professional field. The teaching strategies are varied and include selected readings, lecture with animated slides, video (a welcome from the US Surgeon General, an introductory segment, counseling sessions, and trigger tapes), and role playing with case scenarios. 

Learn more and access the materials.

Menthol Tobacco: Targeting Youth & Creating Health Inequities
Learn how tobacco companies use menthol cigarettes to target youth and marginalize communities, and what you can do to regulate menthol tobacco in your community with these new, short videos created by the Twin Cities Medical Society's Physician Advocacy Network.


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Information to Share?

Do you know of resources, learning opportunities or other information to share with others in a future  Connections newsletter? Please send it to ICSI's Tani Hemmila .

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