Join us for the tenth episode of GFN Voices 2023!
Riccardo Polosa and Carolyn Beaumont reflect on their standout moments of #GFN23, and their ongoing #tobaccoharmreduction projects.
Transcription:
Hello Riccardo, it's nice to see you in Warsaw this year.
What do you think about this year's GFN conference?
This is 10th year of GFN conference, so it is a big event.
I think the GFN conveys a completely different message from many of the other conferences
I usually attend to.
So I think there's a lot of space for advocacy, a lot of space for consumers, and consumers
need to have a voice.
GFN is the right place for consumers to have a voice.
And actually when I look at all my clinical trials, all the studies, this is exactly what
I see and what I do.
I give them voice to improve the quality of my studies.
And can you tell me about the projects you are currently working on?
Oh my God, there are many, many projects currently undergoing under the umbrella of the Center
of Excellence for the Acceleration of Harm Reduction, the CoEHAR.
One such project is about the impact of vaping products on schizophrenic smokers.
As you know, schizophrenics, people with mental illnesses, people with schizophrenia, let's
not stigmatize these people, do smoke a lot and do find extremely challenging to quit
smoking, basically nearly impossible for them to quit smoking.
We have shown in a pilot study that quitting is possible with vaping for people with schizophrenia.
And now we are running a multi-center trial, an international multi-center trial, just
to reinforce and to confirm our previous observation in this vulnerable population.
And this year's strapline is tobacco harm reduction the next decade.
What do you think needs to change within next 10 years?
That's a $1 million question.
I think what will change, we will see more innovation, more diversification in products,
more technology, and I think more acceptance of the tobacco harm reduction paradigm.
Hello, Caroline. It's nice to see you in Warsaw.
Can you tell us what do you think about this year's GFN conference?
Amazing. Absolutely amazing.
It's my first GFN conference and hopefully not my last one.
I mean, I've met so many people, learned such a lot from presentations, so many things
I can bring home, take to the school students that I talk to about vaping, so many things
I can add into my tobacco harm reduction consults with patients.
It's just been fabulous.
You were one of the panelists in the session, The Challenging Face of Nicotine.
What are your thoughts?
That was a great panel.
I'm trying to remember some of the key details from it.
One of the interesting parts of that, I think Clive was talking about how it's not so much
how nicotine is delivered, whether it's in cigarettes or whatever form of e-cigs, but
just the fact that nicotine has to be delivered.
I thought that was an interesting concept.
Yeah, we were quite a diverse range on the panel, but it all seemed to flow really well.
I think I've had good feedback from it.
I found it very interesting.
I hope others did.
Can you tell us about projects you're currently working on?
Projects that I'm currently working on.
The next project, which is happening as soon as I get back from here, is presenting to
Australian medical students about tobacco harm reduction.
That's something I'm going to be refining and hopefully be able to go around to Australian
medical schools and start to teach them properly about THR.
Great.
Thank you so much.
Thanks, Joanna.