Social Marketing for the Digital Age: An Overview for Quitline Programs
This guide is designed to equip quitline programs with a practical resource for launching a digital social marketing campaign. Its purpose is to help you clarify your digital marketing strategy and ensure each step aligns with your program goals and priority audiences, following best practices in social marketing. Ultimately, this guide aims to help quitline programs of any size implement strategic, scalable, and evidence-based digital campaigns by providing advice and resources on how to get started.
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Tobacco & Vaping Cessation - Implementing & Fostering Quitline Referrals: A Guide for Oral Health Professionals (2023)
To help dental partners leverage quitlines, the American Dental Association (ADA) teamed up with the North American Quitline Consortium (NAQC) to develop Tobacco & Vaping Cessation - Implementing & Fostering Quitline Referrals: A Guide for Oral Health Professionals. The toolkit offers practical guidance for oral health providers interested in connecting patients to quitline services
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Priority Practices for State Quitlines to Implement by June 2023 (2022)
Building on the 2018 “ Adoption of Recommended Best Practices among State Quitlines” issue paper which identified 21 best practices from 17 issue papers, the new report identifies six high priority best and promising practices for adoption by all state quitlines by June 2023. The criteria used to identify the priority practices reflect expectations within the quitline community for improving the quality of quitline services: Increase reach; improve impact; adapt to emerging issues; be feasible; and be sustainable.
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Project CONNECT: An Implementation Guide for Quitlines (2022)
Project CONNECT: An Implementation Guide for Quitlineswas released as a result of NAQC’s partnership activities with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MD Anderson), as well as quitline service providers, and quitline funders. Project CONNECT tested and further refined an existing video patient decision aid about LCS for quitline participants . Seven state quitlines and their state public health funders participated in Project CONNECT to evaluate the reach and impact and document the resources needed to implement and maintain the patient decision aid and other educational materials about LCS. Based on the experiences of the states and service providers involved in Project CONNECT, an Implementation Guide for Quitlines was developed to help quitline funders and service providers learn what it takes to educate quitline participants about lung cancer screening.
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Identifying Priority Best Practices for State Quitlines (2019)
This report identifies seven high priority best practices to help quitline increase reach and improve cessation outcomes for quitline callers, and provides guidance on implementing three of the high priority best practices. 
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Adoption of Recommended Best Practices among State Quitlines (2018)
This report provides an overview of 21 recommended best practices for state quitlines; providing the adoption rate for each best practice, as well as information on facilitators or barriers to adoption as reported by state quitlines. This report is intended to inform the quitline community about the current landscape for adopting recommended best practices that impact the advancement of state quitlines and their ability to increase reach and improve cessation outcomes for quitline callers. It also provides actions steps for NAQC, state funders, quitline service providers and national organizations to improve the adoption of best practices.
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Quitline Services: Current Practice and Evidence Base (2016)
This Quality Improvement Initiative guidance paper, Quitline Services: Current Practice and Evidence Base, reviews current quitline practice in the U.S., highlights the scientific evidence for each category of service, and discuses major considerations related to implementation and evaluation of the service.

This paper is intended for all consortium members and stakeholders who want to expand their knowledge of quitline services. It provides scientific guidance for decision making on the types of services to offer.

To supplement the Guide, NAQC has created a Checklist for Reviewing Quitline Services and Activities. It serves as a tool for guiding quitline stakeholders (purchasers, service providers, researchers and health care system leaders) in their efforts to review the quality and value of services provided and whether they are evidence-based services.
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Guide for Implementing eReferral Using Certified EHRs! (2015)
This guide is a resource for quitlines and other cessation services that would like to establish referral systems with healthcare electronic health record (EHR) systems. It provides recommended standards for implementing eReferral in a straightforward and efficient way.

• For non-technical program staff, the guide’s introduction, purpose and summary of recommendations will provide useful background on eReferral (see first 5 pages).
• For technical staff at quitlines, other cessation services and healthcare institutions, the guide’s recommended set of standards provides a roadmap for creating bi-directional eReferrals (read full guide and appendices).
  

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This issue paper reviews current service offerings for the three largest quitline service providers and reports on their protocols and strategies to promote engagement and retention of pregnant callers, including using a dedicated coach, incentives for attending counseling sessions, using text messaging to reach clients, engaging partners or spouses, and sending correspondence or reminders about quitline support. A literature review is also included.
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The purpose of this NAQC Quality Improvement Initiative Issue Paper is to provide an update on the comprehensive review of the literature and practice related to the integration of tobacco cessation medications and quitline services that reflects additions to the evidence base and improvements in practice since the first publication (2009). The author discusses the major factors that must be considered in deciding if medications should be offered as part of quitline services, including topics such as cost-effectiveness analysis, choice of medication, determination of quantity of medication to provide and the method of distribution of medications that will be used. A new section on e-cigarettes appears in the update, as well as new content related to concurrent use of more than one type of tobacco to reflect the FDA's new warning label regulations. Updated recommendations on key issues related to integration of medications into quitline services are provided by the author.
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Quitlines in the U.S.: An Exploration of the Past and Considerations for the Future (2014)

This paper outlines the current status of state quitlines and describes how, as a result of an extremely dynamic political and funding landscape and the opportunity of the Affordable Care Act, quitlines should move forward to improve efficiency and become leverage points for broader cessation initiatives with new and existing partners. The paper illuminates best and promising practices for integrating quitlines into the broader healthcare landscape and informs decisions on strategic planning, determining specific goals and objectives of a state quitline and sustainability planning for the future.

Recommendations found in the Executive Summary express NAQC’s priorities for moving toward the future vision for quitlines defined by NAQC in collaboration with its members, leadership and partners. As NAQC celebrates its 10 year anniversary, the quitline community remains committed to ensuring that tobacco users are encouraged to quit, that high-quality cessation services are readily available to all who want to quit, and that we stand ready to move collectively toward a future vision of the role we  will play in this critical effort.
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Quality Improvement Initiative Issue Paper: Quitline Referral Systems (2013)
This issue paper aims to explore the current landscape of quitline referral systems with healthcare and other providers and to examine in detail the critical operational and outcome-related components of these referral systems. While the primary focus of the paper is on the U.S. experience, the authors have incorporated critical aspects of the Canadian systems where appropriate. In addition to providing a review of the evidence, authors address the fundamental processes that underlie all referral systems, regardless of the referral method (e.g., phone, fax or electronic) and make recommendations for quality referral systems practices.
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Quitline Service Offering Models: A Review of the Evidence and Recommendations for Practice in Times of Limited Resources (2012)
This paper aims to present evaluation and research data used to guide decision-making on ways to invest limited funding for quitline services most effectively in an easy-to-use format and to make recommendations for most effectively using limited resources when determining quitline service offering options. Specifically, the paper addresses the following questions:

1) How effective are different service offering models regarding quitline utilization, tobacco abstinence rates, and costs? Are there points at which the return on investment diminishes in terms of amount of counseling (attempted and completed) and medication provided?
2) What impact does the provision of medications through quitlines have on reach and quit rates? Which mechanisms for dosing and delivery of medications are most cost-effective and/or provide other efficiencies?
3) Is there evidence to support the use of advanced technologies (web, interactive voice response [IVR] and texting) to expand quitline service offerings? Are these approaches cost-effective? What other efficiencies are achieved?
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view executive summary
view recommendations for research
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The Use of Quitlines among Priority Populations in the U.S.: Lessons from the Scientific Evidence (2011)
This issue paper is a systematic review of the scientific evidence regarding cessation services to priority populations (African Americans/blacks (AA/B), American Indian and Alaska Natives (AI/AN), Asian American and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders (API), Hispanic/Latinos (H/L), the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, and individuals of low socioeconomic status (low SES)) with a specific focus on the use, effectiveness and promotion of quitlines. The review attempts to provide lessons learned from the scientific evidence in order to better inform decision making within quitlines.
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Assessing the Cost-Effectiveness of Quitline Programs (2010)
Performing cost-effectiveness analyses is an essential element of any quitline’s quality improvement process. This is especially true as budgetary constraints become more important to determining all aspects of service delivery. This issue paper aims to:

• document the facts related to the cost of tobacco use;
• provide an overview of methods currently used for cost-effectiveness analysis of quitlines; and
• in general terms, describe approaches and considerations for conducting cost-effectiveness analysis on a specific quitline program.

This paper is intended to present general information useful for a wide variety of stakeholders and not to serve as a guide for performing cost-effectiveness analyses.
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view table 1 
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Call Center Metrics: Best Practices in Performance Measurement and Management to Maximize Quitline Efficiency and Quality (2010)
This issue paper defines the most critical operational, service performance and efficiency-related call center metrics for establishing and maintaining quitline quality. The paper, authored by Penny Reynolds of The Call Center School (http://www.thecallcenterschool.com/), makes recommendations on important metrics to measure (including why they are important for funders, service providers and callers); recommendations on how to measure and report these metrics; and describes how these reports may be used by both the service providers and funders to improve quality.
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Call Center Metrics Glossary of Terms (2010)
This glossary was developed to support an increased understanding of call center operations-related terms and to continue building a shared language between quitline service providers, funders and researchers. 
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Fundamentals of Call Center Staffing and Technologies (2009)
This technical assistance resource paper is designed to outline the staffing structure of call centers including steps for forecasting workload, staffing for inbound telephone calls and performance management. Additionally, this paper provides an introduction to the standard technology structure of today’s modern call center and is intended to complement the content and recommendations found in  "Call Center Metrics: Best Practices in Performance and Measurement to Maximize Quitline Efficiency and Quality.”
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