TRTC Research Projects

Focus Area: Vulnerable populations

A randomized controlled trial testing whether a navigation program will increase the proportion of homeless smokers eligible for lung cancer screening who receive the test.

American Cancer Society RSG-17-157-01-CPPB
PI: Travis Baggett, MD, MPH

Focus Area: Cessation, vulnerable populations

A randomized controlled trial testing whether providing financial incentives to homeless smokers to stop smoking improves long-term cessation rates compared to standard care.

NIH/NCI 1R01CA235617-01
PI: Travis Baggett, MD, MPH

Learn more about "Financial Incentives for Homeless Smokers: A Community-Based RCT"

Focus Area: Cessation

A randomized controlled trial compared two strategies for helping smokers employed at Mass General Brigham to quit smoking. Participants are randomly assigned (2:1) to a Mass General Brigham-based smoking cessation coach or to referral to the Massachusetts Smokers Helpline. The Mass General Brigham coaching program includes 12 weeks of (1) regular contacts by telephone and email with a Mass General Brigham-based tobacco coach, (2) coordination of care with physicians to help smokers obtain and adhere to smoking cessation medication, and (3) ongoing support for 12 months by email. The primary outcome is biochemically confirmed cigarette abstinence 6 months post-enrollment.

PI: Nancy Rigotti, MD

Focus Area: Cessation

3-site randomized controlled trial comparing the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of 2 interventions to increase hospitalized smokers’ long-term tobacco abstinence after discharge. The intervention, Personalized Tobacco Care Management, includes free NRT at discharge, 7 automated contacts (IVR call or text message) over 3 months, and access to a tobacco coach who coordinates treatment. Standard care, Quitline eReferral, consists of an automated referral to the state quitline at discharge.

This project builds upon the previous Helping Hand studies: Helping Hand 1, Helping Hand 2

NIH/NHLBI 2R01HL11821
PI: Nancy Rigotti, MD

Learn more about "Comparative Effectiveness of Post-discharge Strategies for Hospitalized Smokers"

Focus Area: Cessation

Randomized controlled trial testing the effectiveness of a strategy using computerized phone calls to streamline the delivery of tobacco cessation medication and counseling to smokers being discharged from an inpatient psychiatric hospital

NIH/NIMH 1R01MH104562-01
PI: Nancy Rigotti, MD, Rick Brown, PhD

Learn more about "Extended care for Smoking Cessation Following Psychiatric Hospitalization"

Focus Areas: Cessation, Global Health

Pilot evaluation, in collaboration with LifeFirst, of a 6-month mobile phone-based tobacco cessation counseling program for tobacco users in India. LifeFirst was created by the Narotam Sekhsaria Foundation (Mumbai) and is offered to tobacco users hospitalized at Prince Aly Khan Hospital in Mumbai. Its effectiveness vs. usual care (historical control) is being studied in a pilot study.

PI: Nancy Rigotti, MD, Gina Kruse, MD, MPH

Focus Area: Cessation

Randomized controlled pilot trial testing the effectiveness of offering text messaging to smokers receiving primary care at Mass General Community Health Centers and are identified from an electronic health record

NIH/NIDA K23 DA038717
PI: Gina Kruse, MD, MPH

Learn more about "A Text Messaging Intervention for Smoking Cessation among Community Health Center Patients"

Focus Area: Cessation

Key component of multiple NIH-funded studies in the inpatient setting (R01-HL111821), the inpatient mental health setting (R01-MH104562), the cancer care setting (R01-CA166147), and the pediatric setting (R01-CA127127)

PI: Douglas Levy, PhD

Focus Area: Cessation

Development and application of a novel Monte Carlo microsimulation model integrating the clinical and economic outcomes of cigarette smoking with those of HIV, with a goal of evaluating the cost-effectiveness of smoking cessation interventions in people living with HIV.

NIDA K01DA042687-02
PI: Krishna Reddy, MD

Learn more about "Clinical and Economic Outcomes of HIV, Cigarette Smoking, and Smoking Cessation Interventions"

Focus Areas: Cessation, Global Health

Brief longitudinal observational study examining the burden of tobacco use, tobacco cessation treatment preferences and cessation patterns among patients in HIV care in Chennai, India.

Harvard University Center for AIDS Research Developmental Award
PI: Gina Kruse, MD, MPH

Focus Areas: Secondhand Smoke, Vulnerable Populations

The original FreshAir study evaluated the impact of a new smoke-free housing rule implemented in the Boston Housing Authority (public housing) on secondhand smoke exposure measured through biomarkers, air quality, and self-report. The second FreshAir study looks at smoke-free policies in public housing across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and will assess the impact of these policies on resident health, health care utilization, and health care expenditures.

NIH/NHLBI 2R01HL112212
PI: Douglas Levy, PhD

Learn more about "The FreshAir studies"

Focus Areas: Cessation, Community Health, Implementation

A multi-site randomized controlled trial to examine the effectiveness and implementation of a virtually-delivered, evidence-based tobacco treatment integrated into cancer care for patients in community oncology settings. It will compare the effectiveness and implementation of an Enhanced Usual Care (EUC; control group) versus an evidence-based Virtual Intervention Treatment (VIT; intervention group) for tobacco cessation in newly diagnosed cancer patients who smoke, recruited from the NCI affiliates.

NIH/NCI 1R01CA214427 - 01A1
PI: Elyse R. Park, PhD, MPH; Jamie Ostroff, PhD

Learn more about "Implementing a Virtual Tobacco Treatment in Community Oncology Practices"

Focus Areas: Cessation, Lung Cancer Screening, Dissemination and Implementation

A randomized controlled trial to develop a centralized, evidence-based smoking cessation treatment for current smokers undergoing lung cancer screening (LCS) within the Mass General Brigham. The RCT will recruit patients at 3 time points (LCS test order, test performance, and delivery of test results) and examine the effectiveness of 2 levels of 3 intervention components (counseling, nicotine replacement therapy, screening and referral to community-based resources to address social barriers to quitting), as well as evaluate the reach, adoption, implementation and maintenance of the smoking cessation treatment. The primary outcome is biochemically confirmed cigarette abstinence 6 months’ post-enrollment.

NIH 1R01CA218123 - 01A1
PI: Elyse R. Park, PhD, MPH; Jennifer Haas, MD, MSPH; Nancy Rigotti, MD

Focus Areas: Electronic Cigarettes, Harm Reduction

Pilot randomized controlled trial testing whether providing e-cigarettes for 12 weeks to cigarette smokers with mild to moderate COPD who do not plan to quit cigarettes in the next month changes daily cigarette consumption. Secondary outcomes will look at effects on tobacco use biomarkers and pulmonary function and symptoms.

NIH/NHLBI 1K23HL136854-01A1
PI: Sara Kalkhoran, MD, MA

Learn more about "Effects of Electronic Cigarette use on Smokers with Mild to Moderate Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease"

Focus Area: Cessation

1. Tobacco treatment offered routinely to all hospital patients admitted to Mass General
2. Tobacco Coach provides in-person individual counseling to patients seen at Mass General Community Health Centers (Revere, Chelsea, Charlestown, Everett)

Mass General Director: Nancy Rigotti, MD
Mass General Manager: Michele Reyen, MPH
Health Center Manager: Jonina Gorenstein

Focus Area: Cessation

Randomized trial of routine outreach to smokers in five Mass General Community health centers who are identified using electronic health record. They are offered tobacco cessation treatment independent of clinic visits.

PI: Nancy Rigotti, MD

Focus Areas: Cessation, Secondhand Smoke

1. Intervention for pediatric outpatient settings to deliver NRT, quitline and Txt enrollment, and point of service tobacco advertising to parents and teens using tablets
2. Randomized controlled trial of a strategy to transform routine pediatric outpatient practice to assist parents quitting smoking, conducted in 20 pediatric practices nationwide

NCI R01 CA127127-0
PI: Jonathan Winickoff, MD, MPH

Learn more about "CEASE"