SVS Offers Physician Toolkits for CAN-DO Smoking Cessation Initiative

September 13, 2023—The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) announced new tools and resources for physicians, surgeons, and other health care professionals to help them help patients in the SVS Patient Safety Organization (PSO) national smoking cessation initiative, CAN-DO, which was launched in August 2023.

CAN-DO (Choosing Against combustible Nicotine Despite Obstacles) includes three components: physician and patient toolkits; inclusion of smoking cessation variables in the SVS PSO Vascular Quality Initiative’s (VQI’s) arterial registries; and updating smoking cessation information on the SVS website at vascular.org.

According to SVS, the physicians’ toolkit includes a quick guide to treatment options; information on counseling via text messaging, use of smartphone apps and web-based services; a dictionary of electronic cigarettes and vaping products; resource documents; patient-facing information doctors can distribute; and billable smoking cessation codes that will permit reimbursement.

In the society’s press release, SVS PSO Associate Medical Director Gary Lemmon, MD, noted that simply asking a patient, “Do you smoke?” is insufficient. He advised surgeons and doctors to extend the conversation to the “3 As.”

The 3 As are:

• The Ask: Ask if the patient wants to quit and when the patient smokes that first cigarette of the day.
• The Assist: Offer liberal use of nicotine replacement therapy and medications but tell the patient not to use e-cigarettes as a crutch while also smoking.
• The Advice: Refer patients to professional counseling, apps, and other tools.

This targeted intervention is proven to improve success in smoking cessation, stated Dr. Lemmon.

“Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death and disability, 10 times more than the premature deaths from all wars fought by the United States,” commented Dr. Lemmon in the SVS press release. He further noted that smoking is a major cause of cardiovascular disease and more than 90% of cancer of the lungs and other organs. Moreover, secondhand smoke increases the risk of death and disability to those who do not smoke.

Dr. Lemmon and SVS PSO Director of Quality Betsy Wymer also noted that new technologies have multiplied the number of tools available to help people quit smoking.

“Most adults try to quit six times before being successful,” noted Wymer in the SVS press release. She and Dr. Lemmon urge surgeons to stress to patients that, “It’s never too late to quit.”

Both SVS and the American Heart Association advise patients to quit smoking before surgery.

“Getting our patients to quit smoking is probably the most important thing we can do, probably even more than any surgery we would talk about,” stated Matthew Edwards, MD, in the SVS press release. Dr. Edwards is Professor of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery and Chair of the Department of Vascular Surgery at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

As outlined in the August announcement, the CAN-DO patient toolkit includes links to resources on quitting smoking. The toolkit offers patients information on health effects of smoking and benefits of quitting; state-specific resources and cessation plans; treatment options; apps; podcasts and videos; tips from former smokers; social media support groups; and telephone “quitlines.”

More information is available online at www.vqi.org/smoking-cessation/.