 Michael C. Fiore, MD, MPH, Director of the Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention, Department of Medicine, University of Wisconsin, Madison, received the 1997 Dan Anderson Research Award for his research that supports reducing the great health burden produced by nicotine addiction. His signature work documented the effectiveness of getting the medical community to identify tobacco use as a vital sign, a strategy that greatly increases smoking cessation interventions.
In a 1991 editorial published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Fiore proposed expanding the vital signs to include smoking status. A series of subsequent investigations, including one led by Fiore (Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 1995) showed that expanding the vital signs (blood pressure, pulse, temperature) to include smoking status was associated with significantly increased rates of identifying patients who smoke and of intervening to encourage and assist them with smoking cessation. In April 1996, the efforts of a 19-member panel chaired by Fiore and convened by the Agency for Health Care Policy culminated in the publication of the Clinical Practice Guideline on Smoking Cessation, which contains strategies and recommendations designed to assist clinicians, smoking cessation specialists, health care administrators, purchasers, and insurers in identifying tobacco use and supporting and delivering effective smoking cessation interventions. See: Clinical Practice Guideline Number 18: Smoking Cessation, (1996) U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, AHCPR Publication No. 96-0692, Washington, D. C. |
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