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Health Center Finds Virtual Sessions Help Patients to Quit Tobacco

When COVID-19 made in-person health center visits more challenging, the Broward Community & Family Health Centers faced a problem.

Routine tobacco screening of patients had helped to spark a successful smoking cessation program, and the Florida center’s staff members were loath to end their efforts. Instead, they decided to experiment with an online approach.

The venture paid off; indeed, remote sessions work better for some people. This is especially true of those who work from home or have limited time to travel to the center’s five locations due to childrearing or other family commitments, said Jamal Lawson, the community outreach manager.

Nova Southeastern University and the Florida Department of Health support the program. It includes four weekly sessions with trained instructors and provides patients with nicotine patches or lozenges to help them transition to a healthier lifestyle.

Virtual sessions have a smaller number of people in each group, ranging from three to 14 participants, compared to the typical 10 to 20 for the in-person gatherings, and the smaller group size works well for some patients. In addition, staff have found it easier to schedule multiple time slots, including a class that runs from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., which is popular with working people. Although it is still too early to assess long-term success, Lawson said 90% of participants were initially successful at giving up tobacco.

Now that center staff have learned how successful remote sessions can be, they plan to keep it as a choice even after in-person sessions resume. Lawson said the payoff is patients who are thrilled about becoming non-smokers.

“They never thought they could quit,” he said.