UK research

[BarryK]

Ha, welcome to the lab Barry. Take your clothes off behind the screen please

.

OK - done that, problem is, now I can't see the b00dy screen, also there's not much room on the back of this desk and it's flippin' cold...........what's next?

:0)

[BarryK]

Ha, welcome to the lab Barry. Take your clothes off behind the screen please

.

OK - done that, problem is, now I can't see the b00dy screen, also there's not much room on the back of this desk and it's flippin' cold...........what's next?

:0)

[Kate]

Um ... maybe put your clothes back on now Barry I didn't bargain for that much co-operation

Thanks for the link Smokey Joe, I'll have a look before I write anything to the Cochrane group.

It might be that we can act as a co-ordinating group for real world trials, not necessarily being studied ourselves but acting as an organising or consulting resource. I don't really know the possibilities myself but I'd like to keep as many options open as we can for now. If we can lobby for intermediaries, funding, expert clinicians, researchers, etc from here then maybe we can get something moving.

Chances are that setting up anything as ambitious as a decent clinical trial will take a long time though, so having records of progress here will make it easier to pass the batten when some of us move on.

[Kate]

I've had another email from:

Amanda Young MScBSc(hons)
Practising Health Psychologist
Programme Manager (Technology Assessment Reports)
Science Support Directorate
National Coordinating Centre for Health Technology Assessment (NCCHTA)
NIHR HTA programme : Home


Amanda has taken an interest in esmoking and is willing to try to help us to get something moving.

I suggested that she register with the forum so we could collaborate here and she is going to do that when she has the time.

I think she might have taken pity on us because I said we were willing and available to try to organise but were clueless about what we needed to do to get research carried out.

She told me:

"I used to work as a researcher (in many different fields such as drug education, stroke care, end of life care and liver disease) and can therefore possibly offer additional guidance to you, if you would like me to?
I will do some background reading and searching for you and see if I can come up with some possible names or contacts for you in the research field (academics and/or researchers)."

Hopefully she'll find her way here and we can start looking at what we need to do to work towards some meaningful research for esmoking.

[SuziQ]

I would also like to be included in this Kate.
Like the rest of us, I hope what I am doing is safer than the time bomb of smoking tobacco, but there are a few niggles in my mind with e cigs. We know smoking is likely to kill us and it is imperative that we find out for sure about this method of getting nicotine.

[SmokeyJoe]

Nice work Kate,

If you need any assistance with setting up a dedicated section etc, please get in touch.

All the best,

SJ

[Chrissie]

Please count me in as well.

[Kate]

I think there is quite a bit of interest in this, lots of people joined this group and said they were interested after the post on the the main forum went up.

It might be an idea for us to consider what we would like to achieve, just to get a clue so we can determine how to proceed.

My thoughts were that a clinical trial to assess the progress of smokers swapping to esmoking would be good. Physical and psychological changes during the quit and assessment of side effects - are they to do with esmoking or quitting? How effective is esmoking as a smoking cessation technique compared with current NRT?

A medium and long term study of the effects of esmoking without smoking being a factor would also be useful. What are the implications of inhaling propylene glycol, glycerine or flavourings long term. Is nicotine more potent with esmoking?

Are there any health questions you would like answers to? Please post them so we can get some ideas. Thanks.

[Kate]

Something else to mention - a UK supplier has emailed me to offer support and the possibility of supplying us with hardware if we get some research going.

I'm not going to identify him, he said he'd prefer to stay in the background so I don't know if that means being anonymous. If he wants to make himself known here I for one don't have a problem with him posting and sharing views.

Thanks for the support

[Kate]

Ok, just for the curious, I've checked and it's ok to tell you about the supplier.

It's Simon/Smokester/e-cigs.co.uk. He said he might be able to supply some sample kits for academics or researchers to try out.