Press Release: ISCI_SEC Research Meeting project in Porto

Prompt launching of the ISCI_SEC project at the participating hospitals

On November 15^th 2017, researchers from the ISCI_SEC Project met in Porto to ultimate the implementation plan of the ISCI_SEC project in Portugal. This implementation research project is intended to boost smoking cessation interventions addressed to hospitalized smoker patients through two strategies:

• Provide training to health professionals through an online brief intervention course designed by the Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO) and,
• Promote the usage of supportive implementation materials (protocol, pocket guide, and a poster) based on the Ottawa Model

The project is undertaken in two Portuguese hospitals (Hospital Cova de Beira and Hospital de Gaia) and other two in Spain (Hospital Duran i Reynals and Consorci Integral Sanitari). In both countries smoking consumption is still high (38% and 29%, respectively).

The ISCI_SEC project is based on an organizational model in which the managers, coordinators and all the staff members are engaged in improving smoking cessation interventions in the daily practice. The educational and training materials designed will contribute to it.

In Catalonia, the Catalan Institute of Oncology has recently launched this project (6^th of November 2017) while the Consorci Sanitari Integral (CSI) will do it in January 2018. Further, in Portugal, the Hospital Cova de Beira has foreseen the start of the project the 20^th of January and the Hospital de Gaia in March.

The project is funded by Global Bridges and coordinated by the Mayo Clinic. Global Bridges grants support the training for treatment and control of tobacco use worldwide.