Report of the 2017 Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco Annual Meeting
Report of the 2017 Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco Annual Meeting The Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco is the only international professional research organization focusing on nicotine and tobacco research. It has two chapters, one for North America and one for Europe. Each chapter has their own Board and operating structure and they each have a meeting annually
. In 2017, both the North American and European chapters joined together for one meeting in Florence, Italy between March 8 and 11, 2017. More information on the Society is provided at the end of this report of the 2017 Annual Meeting.
Pre-Conference Activities on March 8, 2017: Workshops and Transdisciplinary Topical Discussions
Workshops by nicotine and tobacco researchers, requiring advance reservation and the payment of a workshop fee were available in morning sessions in 10 areas: Tobacco regulation, Tobacco Treatment in Health Systems, Nicotine Reduction, Policies on Waterpipe Smoking, Electronic cigarette policy, Introduction to the Multiphase Optimization Strategy (MOST) for building interventions, FDA’s Regulatory Decision-Making Standards, Tobacco and Marijuana Use, Indigenous Peoples in research, Meaningfulness in tobacco control work.
*Interesting slides from the 2017 SRNT Preconference Workshop from 7 researchers who presented at the workshop: FDA’s Population Health Standard: Balancing the Risks and Benefits in Regulatory Decision-making are available at: http://www.srnt.org/?page=2017preconslides
Transdisciplinary Topical Discussions, free discussion sessions, were held in afternoon sessions covering the following topics: E-Health Cessation Interventions, Are Over the Counter NRTs effective? Treating tobacco use with other addictions, Financial incentives to quitting, Challenges of Cessation Treatment in Health Care Settings, Vape shops: Tobacco vendors or cessation services?, Reducing Children’s exposure to secondhand smoke.
Main Conference Program The Conference Program from March 9 to 11 included a balance of presentations in nine general topic areas: Basic science, Pre-clinical, Clinical, Public Health/Epidemiology, Policy, Health Disparities, International, Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC), and Treatment. Each of the 37 Symposia and 17 Paper Sessions were rated in the program for audience interest using these nine areas. Table 1 shows how symposia and paper sessions were balanced by general topic area for each day from March 9 to 11. Note that March 9th was slightly weighted to basic science, pre-clinical and clinical sessions. March 10th was slightly weighted to public health and epidemiology sessions. Though the symposia and paper sessions were quite balanced across topic areas, the shift from basic science/clinical research on March 9th to public health/epidemiologic studies on March 10 was clearly evident in the poster sessions on those days.
Florence, Italy, March 8 – 11, 2017 By Stephen Hamann, TRC Consultant
