Dr Hilary Tindle: Findings and Patient Perspectives on Precision Approaches to Smoking Cessation

Patients are generally enthusiastic about precision approaches to quitting smoking in pilot studies, and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are ongoing, said Hilary Tindle, MD, MPH, associate professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University.

Transcript

What were some of your findings from the pilot precision RCTs you participated in, and what were patient attitudes towards them?

We have conducted a couple of pilots and we're conducting a larger clinical trial now that is not finished, it's still ongoing. But in our pilot work, one was in the hospital clinic setting and another was in the community setting through the Southern Community Cohort Study, which is a longitudinal cohort of 12 states in the South that overlaps with Tobacco Nation.

We uniformly found that people are enthusiastic about precision approaches to quitting smoking, and that's across all groups. There were some groups, of course, who were a little less enthusiastic, but that's what you're going to find with any new therapy. And all that it means is that people need to see good evidence, they need to know that what they're accepting is high-value care. But in general, most people, if they're asked, would you take a blood test if your doctor could order it, and it could help choose the best medicine for you to quit smoking? Most people endorse that with a yes.