Applying Total Quality Management to LGBTQ tobacco control

In the first world, tobacco is responsible for the loss of a significant number of disability-adjusted life years. The lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community uses tobacco at much higher rates than socioeconomically-equivalent populations. Total Quality Management (TQM) has long been used in manufacturing and health services to communicate goals and improve product and service quality. Although TQM has traditionally been carried out under the control of a single managerial environment, its application to tobacco control in the LGBT community requires coalition building and the collaboration of diverse organizations. Using a TQM storyboard approach, this project assesses the availability of information relevant to the TQM process in order to identify tobacco control needs and strategies. A TQM storyboard is constructed to communicate existing, systematically reviewed, evidence and to identify gaps in current research. The TQM storyboard process is presented as a valid tool for tobacco control program improvement and development – even outside of tightly controlled managerial environments.