The World Health Organization (WHO) is in the process of developing a WHO Clinical Treatment Guideline for Tobacco Cessation. The guideline intends to provide recommendations for tobacco cessation clinical practice and tobacco cessation policies to guide WHO member states on how to effectively support 1.3 billion tobacco users to quit.
Following WHO guideline development processes and methods, the No Tobacco unit (TFI), WHO Health Promotion department is forming a Guideline Development Group (GDG) for developing the WHO Clinical Treatment Guideline for Tobacco Cessation. The role of the GDG members is to support the guideline development through participation in GDG meetings and supporting guideline development activities. Members of the GDG participate in the guideline development process as individuals and not as representatives of the institutions or organizations with which they are affiliated. The provisional list of GDG members, who are experts and frontline providers in tobacco cessation and tobacco dependence treatment are listed below.
List of proposed GDG members
- Dr Tim McAfee (Chair), Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, USA (biography)
- Dr Pratima Murthy (Co-chair), National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore, India (biography)
- Dr Ahmad Al Mulla, Tobacco Control Center, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar (biography)
- Dr Vasant Basdeo, South West Regional Health Authority, Trinidad and Tobago (biography)
- Dr Eduardo Bianco, The Ruth Frank Foundation and Next Generation University, Chicago, USA (biography)
- Dr Magdalena Ciobanu, National Institute of Pneumology, Bucharest, Romania (biography)
- Dr Lenora Fernandez, University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital, Mania, Philippines (biography)
- Dr Gholamreza Heydari, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran (biography)
- Dr Sonali Jhanjee, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India (biography)
- Dr Paul Kavanagh, Health Service Executive, Dublin, Ireland (biography)
- Dr Yvonne Olando, National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse, Nairobi, Kenya (biography)
- Dr Boanerjesy Olivier Randriamahazosoa, Private practice for substance abuse treatment, Antananarivo, Madagascar (biography)
- Professor Dan Xiao, China Japan Friendship Hospital, Beijing, China (biography)
Declarations of interests (DOIs)
WHO Secretariat has received and assessed all the DOIs submitted by the GDG members. In accordance with WHO's policy, all declared interests, even if they do not give rise to a conflict of interest that would warrant partial or total exclusion of the expert concerned, will be disclosed within the Guideline Development Group (GDG) at the beginning of the meeting so that other members are aware of them. Many of the GDG members have extensive research and governmental experience and expertise – and consulting with WHO – in the areas that are the subject of the guideline underdevelopment, which are considered relevant and important for the tasks faced by the GDG.
Process to provide comments on the proposed GDG members
Should you have any comments on the proposed GDG members, please send them to tfi@who.int.