Article by Roswell Park Team a Go-to on Nicotine Cessation

How do you know you’re a go-to on smoking cessation? Because you’ve got the citations to prove it.

A paper by K. Michael Cummings, PhD, MPH, Chair of the Department of Health Behavior at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and Director of the New York State Smokers’ Quitline, and several of his Roswell Park colleagues has been singled out by the global news organization Thomson Reuters as the most cited article on nicotine cessation over the last six years.

The article, “Reach, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of free nicotine medication giveaway programs,” published in the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice in January 2006, has been identified by Thomson Reuters’ Essential Science Indicators division as a “Fast-Moving Front.”

In connection with this recognition, ScienceWatch.com has published a Q&A with Dr. Cummings.“Offering free samples of nicotine patches encourages many smokers to take action to call a stop-smoking helpline, and the provision of free nicotine patches along with telephone counseling increases quit success over counseling alone,” he says. The model for medication giveaways that Dr. Cummings and his Quitline colleagues developed has been highly influential, and has been duplicated by numerous cessation programs across the U.S. and internationally.

Click here to read the interview, or here to access the 2006 article on giveaway programs for cessation medications.

Media Contact

Annie Deck-Miller, Senior Media Relations Manager
716-845-8593; annie.deck-miller@roswellpark.org