Research Team 8
Title: «Smoking Cessation Clinic»
Supervisor: Paraskevi Katsaounou
Evaggelismos Hospital hosts the University Department of Respiratory and Critical Care. The department is highly involved in teaching medical students and academic research and has a high peered publication rate. The outpatient respiratory clinics of the department are also, highly reputable and have a pooling of thousands of patients. A smoking cessation clinic was founded four years ago, which is receiving more than 400 smokers yearly. Evangelismos Smoking Cessation Team consists of highly qualified personnel of 3 respiratory physicians, psychologist, dietician and a respiratory nurse that are giving a combination of medical, psychological and dietary instructions. The Smoking Cessation clinic has an increasing patient inclusion rate, while the success rate in SC reaches 60%. It is the first clinic in Greece with established dietary support, especially for women that are afraid of gaining weight with SC. Paraskevi Katsaounou is a lecturer of the Medical school and works at the department. She is in charge of the smoking cessation clinic. She is running a model SC clinic, with full support for the smokers, and has managed to cooperate closely with other internal clinics for supporting hospitalized patients in quitting smoking i.e. the Cardiology, Oncology, Urology and many other departments of Evangelismos Hospital and Obstetrics in Elena Athens Hospital. The Clinic welcomes new protocols exploring smoking cessation. She supervises three Doctoral theses relevant with smoking cessation, with the first results announced last year in the American Thoracic Society’s Congress 2010 in New Orleans 45-46, the European Respiratory Society’s Congress 2010 in Barcelona47 and the 15th State of the Art Interdisciplinary Review Course on Thoracic & Critical Care Medicine Athens 201148. A relative review has also, been published. She is a frequent speaker on smoking cessation at several national (Smoking Asthmatic, 13th State of the Art Interdisciplinary Review Course on Thoracic & Critical Care Medicine Athens 2009 etc) scientific meetings, including Pfizer meetings and international (“Smoking interventions in asthma”- World Congress of Asthma Athens 2010, “The smoking asthmatic”- ERS school seminar. 18th Hellenic Respiratory Society 2009, “Coronary Artery Disease, Nicotine Addiction, and Depression: The Tragic Triad”- Athens Cardiology Update 2010) ones. She also gave many talks in various towns of Greece regarding smoking cessation (12-5-2010 Kalamata, quitting smoking for pharmacologists; “Smoking related diseases”, Lamia 17-4-2010; “Mechanisms of nicotine addiction”, Corfu June 2010). She participates in smoking cessation seminars in the recent years: In April 2008, in Nicosia participated in a seminal regarding the treatment of Nicotine Addiction. On November 2009, she participated on the Global Healthcare Alliance for the Treatment of Tobacco Dependence. In May 2010, she presented the differences on the implementation level of the smoking ban between Cyprus & Greece to representatives of the Media, initiating collaboration between the Hellenic and the Cypriot Respiratory Societies. In June 2010, she participated to “train the trainer” meeting in Paris, organized by Pfizer. In September 2010, at the HTS’s meeting in Rhodes, talked about Smoking in Women and particularly in pregnancy, starting a research collaboration with the largest public Obstetrics specialized hospital in Greece regarding firstly, the Smoking cessation of women during pregnancy and secondly, the effects of smoking during pregnancy on childhood allergies. She chairs the smoking cessation group of Hellenic Thoracic Society (HTS) since January 2012 and is a qualified trainer of chest physicians in Greece. Annually, the smoking cessation group of the Hellenic Thoracic Society is organizing training seminars for respiratory professionals in order to qualify them in smoking cessation. In these seminars the applicant is a giving many talks and participates to all respiratory physicians training. The Greek government passed a law banning smoking in all public places in Greece. As a result, the number of people that decided to quit smoking increased. This gave the applicant the opportunity to present many informative talks on TV and radio which also advertised Evangelismos hospital Smoking Cessation Clinic and increased overall smoker’s recruitment. She reveals a high interest in research and CME. She received a European Union Grant entitled “Web-based smoking cessation in university students using peer group support through a social media application”.
Working in close collaboration with the Professor of Pulmonary Medicine of Athens, she has been involved in the publication of medical books authored by Prof. Roussos and Prof. Barnes (Imperial College, London). Her interest involves Smoking Cessation, COPD and asthma. She has published in several peer reviewed journals (11 publications). She has a growing number of publications in International and local congresses (35 posters in Int’l congresses and 22 in local congresses). Having a strong interest in clinical and biomedical research, she is digging into deep understanding of Smoking cessation mechanisms, in cooperation with Thorax Foundation in Athens and the research centre of the National Heart and Lung Institute of Imperial College, London. Lately, she is researching smoking on asthmatics and inflammation after smoking cessation in COPD patients. Namely the applicant is conducting research related to smoking related oxidative stress since 1999 at G.P. Livanos laboratory in Athens. Her research was related with pathophysiological mechanisms of inflammation on a molecular level. Her Ph.D. thesis was on “the role of oxidative stress in the production of proinflammatory cytokines from the skeletal and respiratory muscles”. Later she worked as a Postdoctoral research fellow with an ERS fellowship at the Department of Thoracic Medicine of National Heart and Lung Institute of Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in London and as a Clinical Research Fellow in the Department of Thoracic Medicine-Royal Brompton & Harefield Hospital-London having as research topic: the measurement of inflammation markers in sputum in smokers and COPD patients. She also, won two fellowships from Onassis and Propondis Foundation in Greece. After returning in Greece as a lecturer of Medical School in Athens, she continues her Research in the University of Athens. She also has experience of International Clinical studies
Lastly, she was a member of Evangelismos Ethics Committee for two years.
Dr Katsaounou is chairman Of Smoking Cessation Group of Hellenic Thoracic Society since December 2012.
She has organized an ERS seminar for smoking cessation in December 2012 and has been accepted to organize a three days European Society Course on Smoking Cessation in 2015.
She is a trainer for smoking cessation professionals on behalf of Hellenic Thoracic Society for the past six years,
Dr Katsaounou receiver Excellence 2012 grand of 172.000 euro from the European union for
“WEB-BASED SMOKING CESSATION IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS USING PEER GROUP SUPPORT THROUGH A SOCIAL MEDIA APPLICATION”.
The Smoking Cessation Clinic is based in the ground floor of Evaggelismos Hospital and consists of the above: Smoking Cessation Outpatient Clinic, Weight Controlling Unit and Psychological support Unit.
Consultation on data analysis is provided by Prfs Scarmeas and Panagiotakos. Dr Scarmeas is an assistant professor of Neurology in National and Kapodistrian University of Athens since 2011.He was associate Professor of Neurology at Columbia University. He has a Master degree in Biostatistics / Epidemiology from Mailman School of Public Health Columbia University (‘Clinical Research Methods’) and has extensive experience with clinical research as demonstrated by his extensive publication record (10 book chapters, 101 abstracts in international conferences,90 original research articles in international scientific journals with an average impact factor ~6,Scopus citations 277,H-index 31).
Demosthenes Panagiotakos who is an Associate Professor in Biostatistics-Epidemiology in the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics at Harokopio University of Athens will be responsible for the data analysis. Dr Panagiotakos has co-authored about 400 peer-reviewed papers in the field of CVD prevention with approximately 4500 citations, he has supervised seven large scale epidemiological studies and designed 17 clinical trials in Greece and US, he has been a part of the Seven Countries Study (3rd generation), and an elected Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology, Royal Society of Public Health and American College of Epidemiology.
Katerina Tsoutsa is the Psychologist running the behavioral intervention program in our clinic in Evangelismos Hospital for the last 3 years. She is a highly motivated scientist integrating a wide and demanding range of academic studies i.e. MSc in Social Psychology (Surrey U), MSc in Neuroscience (UCL), Post Dipl in Counselling Psychology (Roehampton U), and has participated in a number of specialized psychotherapy trainings:
A “Group Crisis Intervention” certification from the CISMF, Baltimore, USA
1year training in Cognitive Analytic Therapy, Munro Centre, SL & Mausley NHS, London.
1 year seminar on Egan’s model of Counselling, CSCT, London.
Currently in training to be a qualified trainer n Schema therapy from Young Institute in New York
She also, participated in the training organized by the Hellenic Thoracic on the organization and running of Smoking Cessation Clinics.
She has clinical experience in the British National Health System (NHS) and has worked in research projects at the University of London, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and Thorax Foundation on smoking and inflammation. She is qualified in relevant psychometric tests:
On memory (Mini Mental), Aptitude (Wechsler Scales [WISC, WIPSY, WAIS], & CAB®), Personality Assessment( 16PF® ) as well as a 1year seminar on DSM V Diagnosis, ISON Psychometrica, Athens. She will be responsible for initial assessments, monitoring and analyzing the web based peer interaction.
The smoking cessation clinic is collaborating with Dimos Fotopoulos who is an addiction psychiatrist. He owns a master degree in Bioethics (University of Crete) and a postgraduate training in Social Planning and Policy in the field of Drug Addiction (KETHEA - National School of Public Health). He is the Director of an outpatient Public Unit for adolescent drug users since 2003 (Greek Organisation against Drugs - OKANA). His experience in addiction is big and his help in ethical issues and human related subjects and internet is of great importance and based on his master degree in bioethics. He is also a trainer of physicians in Greece about drug addiction.
Ioanna Nikoloutsou has a medical degree from the University of Patras in 2002, a PhD related to smoking cessation (thesis entitled “Evaluation of therapeutical interventions for smoking cessation”) from the National and Kapodistrian Univerisity of Athens in 2009. She also has a previous working experience in the smoking cessation clinic of Evgenidio Hospital, University of Athens for 3, 5 years. Currently she is at her fourth year of residency in pulmonary medicine in our department and participates in our smoking cessation clinic. She is a co-author in 20 abstracts related to smoking cessation and a first author in 2 publications related to smoking cessation:
I. Nikoloutsou et al. Smoking cessation treatment in real-life setting: the Greek experience, Therapeutic Advances in Respiratory Disease, December 2007.
I. Nikoloutsou et al., Effectiveness of pharmacotherapy and behavioral interventions for smoking cessation in actual clinical practice, Therapeutic Advances in Respiratory Disease, December 2009)
Dr Eleni Litsiou. Eleni Ishaki and Stavroula Kolokytha are respiratory physicians working in our Smoking Cessation Clinic.
Vasiliki Saltagianni is our respiratory technician.
Dr. Mary Yannakoulia is Assistant Professor of Nutrition and Eating Behaviour in the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Harokopio University, Athens. She holds a degree in Nutrition and Dietetics (Harokopio University, 1993) and an MSc in Nutrition (King’s College, University of London, UK, 1994). In 2002 she obtained her PhD degree in Nutrition from Harokopio University. In 2009, she got a Fulbright award and she visited as research scientist the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre, Harvard Medical School, Boston, US. She has experience in the assessment of all aspects of dietary intake and as well as in the evaluation of the effectiveness of nutritional interventions and clinical studies involving dietary manipulations, in several population groups, including children and adolescents. She has been involved, as a researcher, co-investigator or principal investigator, in 15 research projects, with national or international collaborations and funding. From this work, 70 research and review articles have been published in peer-reviewed journals. She is in the Editorial Board of the Metabolism journal (Elsevier) and co-Editor (along with Dr. Demosthenes Panagiotakos) of the Hellenic Journal of Nutrition and Dietetics.
ΔΕΝ ΚΑΠΝΙΖΩ, ΖΩ ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΑ
