Web-assisted tobacco interventions: empowering change in the global fight for the public's (e)Health

Tobacco control in the 21(st) century faces many of the same challenges as in the past, but in different contexts, settings and enabled by powerful new tools including those delivered by information and communication technologies via computer, videocasts, and mobile handsets to the world. Building on the power of electronic networks, Web-assisted tobacco interventions (WATI) provide a vehicle for delivering tobacco prevention, cessation, social support and training opportunities on-demand and direct to practitioners and the public alike. The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the world's first global public health treaty, requires that all nations develop comprehensive tobacco control strategies that include provision of health promotion information, population interventions, and decision-support services. WATI research and development has evolved to provide examples of how eHealth can address all of these needs and provide exemplars for other areas of public health to follow. This paper discusses the role of WATI in supporting tobacco control and introduces a special issue of the Journal of Medical Internet Research that broadens the evidence base and provides illustrations of how new technologies can support health promotion and population health overall, empowering change and ushering in a new era of public eHealth.