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This section contains links to free, Continuing Medical Education (CME) courses on smoking cessation as well as tools and materials to make delivering cessation interventions to patients more effective and efficient.

Free CME Courses
Free Cessation Counseling Training
Free Patient Counseling and Resources
Instituting Tobacco as a Vital Sign (TVS)
Sticker Templates for Charting
Prescribing Guide for Pharmacotherapies
Patient Resources - Multiple Languages
Other Facts

Free CME Courses

Advising and counseling smoking patients to quit is an important and effective action that health care providers can take in helping patients. Studies have shown that high patient satisfaction occurs for physician visits even for smokers who report no interest in quitting at the time of visit. Take advantage of these resources to help make your interventions with smokers even more effective.

Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention

Free CME-eligible Cessation Course for Clinicians.

The University of Wisconsin Medical School Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention and Office of Continuing Medical Education (CME) have created a free web-based continuing medical education program that provides training in the treatment of tobacco dependence. The program is based on the U.S. Public Health Service Clinical Practice Guideline: Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence and provides education in conducting brief interventions with smokers, guidelines for use and prescribing cessation pharmacotherapies, suggestions for following up with patients and case studies for practical application. One hour of category 1 credit toward the AMA Physician's Recognition Award is offered. Visit www.cme.uwisc.org to access the program, under the Substance Abuse: Tobacco, Alcohol and Drugs section.

HealthCME

Free CME-eligible Tobacco Cessation Course.

HealthCME.com offers an online course on tobacco cessation that includes multiple case studies, clinical information and a list of printable patient handouts. Hypothetical patient scenarios are offered to allow CME-users to conduct interviews to determine each patient's tobacco use status, willingness to quit, concerns about quitting, and appropriate types of interventions. Individualized feedback is provided for each decision and survey response. The program takes from 45 minutes to 2 hours to complete and a printable CMW certificate is provided at the close of the program. Visit HealthCME to access the course.

Free Cessation Counseling Training

Make Yours A Fresh Start Family is a smoking cessation counseling training program developed by the American Cancer Society. Primarily targeted to healthcare providers that care for pregnant women, mothers and other caregivers of young children, the training helps providers use the quick and easy five-step STAGE intervention, engages participants in practice scenarios and identifies ways to implement the training into practice. FREE program materials, including self-help booklets for patients, and technical assistance are available. Health providers in seven counties in California are currently participating in the free trainings.

Make Yours a Fresh Start Family Program Information (PDF-172K)

Free Patient Counseling and Resources

The California Smokers' Helpline (1-800-NO-BUTTS) is a statewide research-based cessation project. Evaluation has shown that the California Smokers' Helpline is an effective program for smoking cessation. The Helpline offers several options to help with quitting, including: one-on-one telephone counseling, motivational self-help materials, and referrals to local tobacco cessation resources. Visit www.CaliforniaSmokersHelpline.org for more information.

As the Web's original quit smoking service, QuitNet was designed from the bottom up to leverage new technologies. QuitNet brings proven scientific methods to the Web to deliver personalized content, intensive social support, expert advice and pharmaceutical product information to tobacco users whenever and wherever they need it. Visit www.quitnet.com for more information.

Instituting Tobacco as a Vital Sign (TVS)

Establishing an office-based system to consistently identify smokers can make the work of the physician, nurse and medical assistant much more effective. One way to do so is to make tobacco use status a regular part of vital sign taking. Many offices are establishing Tobacco as a Vital Sign (TVS) to ensure they regularly and prominently identify patients who use tobacco. Below are three PowerPoint presentations created by the Alameda Health Consortium's American Legacy Foundation-funded Tobacco Use Intervention Project and the Alameda County ATOD Network funded by the Alameda County Master Settlement.

Treating Tobacco Dependence - Adult Model (PowerPoint - 160K)

Treating Tobacco Dependence - Pediatric Model (PowerPoint - 160K)

Treating Tobacco Dependence - Adolescent Model (PowerPoint - 160K)

Sticker Templates for Charting

A simple measure like placing a new sticker on the top of a medical chart helps "flag" current smokers who should receive advise to quit from a physician and former smokers who should be congratulated on their successful quitting and followed for potential relapse. Many stickers have been developed for use in a TVS system. Below are materials to help you implement at TVS system that consistently flags patient to receive advice to quit and cessation services.

Sticker Templates from the Alliance

Prescribing Guide for Pharmacotherapies

Pharmaceuticals can be very effective in aiding patients in their quit attempts, particularly when combined with behavioral treatments to help patients recognize triggers to smoking and identify alternatives to smoking. The prescribing guide below was developed by the Alameda Health Consortium's American Legacy Foundation-funded Tobacco Use Intervention Project and the Alameda County ATOD Network funded by the Alameda County Master Settlement, based on information from the U.S. Public Health Service Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence guidelines.

Quick Reference Guide for Prescribing Cessation Pharmacotherapy (PDF-120K)

Patient Resources - Multiple Languages

The following patient resource, "You Can Quit Smoking Plan," was developed by the US Department of Health and Human Services. The translation was paid for by the Alameda Alliance for Health, the Alameda Health Consortium and the Fresno Kaiser Permanente Health Education Department.