Director's Corner
Reflections on the Pandemic
March 12, 2020
Just as it looked like we had recovered from the EVALI epidemic, along comes the novel Coronavirus, which is probably the biggest social disrupter in my lifetime since World War II, and probably the most domestically threatening since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. We have all...
Director’s Corner on 2020 Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking Cessation
February 03, 2020
The Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking Cessation is a typically massive (700 pages) and evidence-based document with multiple authors and reviewers. The first such report since 1990, it is a valuable compendium of the history, current status, controversies and challenges of...
2020 Director's Corner: Top 20 Successes and Challenges for Smoking Cessation
December 30, 2019
As an inveterate list maker, I can’t resist the opportunity to usher in the year 2020 with a list about smoking cessation. Below I enumerate my nominees for the top 20 successes that have helped promote smoking cessation, as well as the top 20 challenges facing smoking cessation...
The SCLC Looks for a New Director
August 20, 2019
When the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center at UCSF began in January, 2003, it was founded on an unproven assumption: that there was a need to assist clinicians and other groups to improve the practice of smoking cessation. Created with a five-year grant from the Robert Wood...
Father’s Day, Smoking Cessation and Retail Sales of Tobacco Products
May 31, 2019
When asked why I care so much about smoking cessation, I can’t relate any stories of family tragedies. Rather, my motivation comes from the fact that smoking exerts such a huge toll on health, and also that I lost many patients from smoking-induced diseases. But, like many of my...
Declines in Smoking Prompt Health Groups to Set Ambitious New Goal
January 28, 2019
New target is to reduce smoking among adults with mental illnesses/substance use to 20% by 2022 A group of two dozen health groups and leaders in behavioral health and tobacco control has set an ambitious new goal to reduce smoking among persons with behavioral health issues,...
California’s Program on Medicaid Incentives to Quit Smoking (MIQS)
December 06, 2018
Results from a California program aimed at reducing smoking rates among Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California) patients have just been released in a special publication of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. The program, known as MIQS (Medi-Cal Incentives to Quit Smoking)...
The New National Center of Excellence for Tobacco-Free Recovery
October 03, 2018
As of October 1, 2018, the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center at UCSF has been officially designated by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) as the National Center of Excellence for Tobacco-Free Recovery. This award, which will fund the new...
15 Years Went By Fast
February 20, 2018
By: Steven A. Schroeder On January 15, 2003, the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center at UCSF officially began, thanks to a five-year grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and later supplemented by support from the then American Legacy Foundation, now Truth Initiative...
Looking Back at 2017
December 05, 2017
Looking back at 2017 The end of a year provides an opportunity to take stock as well as to look forward. Obviously, the most dramatic events in 2017 revolved around the change of administration in our federal government. Although tobacco was not a major feature in those...
