We were one of 19 grants awarded by the State in July, and ours will serve the Bronx only. Our program is called the Bronx Einstein Alliance for Tobacco-Free Health (Bronx BREATHES).

We received a five-year, $1.5 million award from NY State Dept. of Health to do two things: (1) to provide training, technical assistance, and follow-up to health care institutions regarding the design and implementation of systems to identify tobacco users at each patient encounter and provide brief cessation counseling; and (2) to identify and promote direct cessation services in the form of intensive behavioral counseling in group or individual settings, cessation advice through the New York State Smokers' Quitline, or provision of direct cessation services.

A full abstract describing our program is as follows:

Tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable morbidity and mortality in the Bronx, where 26% of all residents smoke. To reduce the prevalence of smoking and burden of tobacco-related illness in the borough, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine has formed a coalition of hospitals, health care networks, community health centers, private medical practices, community-based organizations, payors, educational institutions, school health programs, governmental agencies, and nonprofit organizations. The goal of the Bronx Einstein Alliance for Tobacco-free Health (Bronx BREATHES) is to create a tobacco-free Bronx, by providing cessation services to all interested smokers regardless of ability to pay, decreasing the social acceptability of tobacco use, and preventing initiation of tobacco use by young people. The primary objectives of Bronx BREATHES are: (1) to provide training, technical assistance, and follow-up to health care institutions regarding the design and implementation of systems to identify tobacco users at each patient encounter and provide brief cessation counseling; and (2) to identify and promote direct cessation services in the form of intensive behavioral counseling in group or individual settings, cessation advice through the New York State Smokers' Quitline, or provision of direct cessation services. We will meet these objectives by providing training and technical assistance to health care providers and institutions by experts in tobacco dependence treatment. In addition, partners in Bronx BREATHES will share their expertise with each other. All interventions will be evidence-based and adapted from the 2000 Public Health Service clinical practice guideline, Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence. A variety of interventions will be tested during the 5-year duration of this project. Numerous evaluation formats will be used, including process outcomes (calls and referrals to the Quitline, etc.), and clinical outcomes (cessation rates of patients enrolled in tobacco dependence treatment programs, borough smoking prevalence rates, etc.)

Sustainability of interventions will be a particular focus of Bronx BREATHES.

Steven L. Bernstein, MD
Principal Investigator
Bronx BREATHES
Associate Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Montefiore Medical Center
111 East 210th St.
Bronx, NY 10467
718-920-2068 office
718-798-0730 fax