A missed opportunity. Teaching medical students to help their patients successfully quit smoking.

CIGARETTE smoking maintains its dubious distinction as the chief preventable cause of cancer in the United States, responsible for 30% of all cancers and resulting in 150 000 cancer deaths each year. 1,2 Despite widespread knowledge regarding the risks of tobacco, 26% of adults in the United States continue to smoke. 3 As a result, an epidemic of cancer continues in this country, blunting the dramatic improvements that have resulted from advances in other areas such as early detection and treatment. One important way to control the epidemic of tobacco-related cancers would be to improve the frequency and effectiveness of smoking interventions by physicians. While many programs have attempted to train practicing physicians, 4 no national program has focused on undergraduate medical education and the importance of reaching medical students during their primary medical training. In this article, we will review the findings of a National Cancer Institute (NCI) Expert

[1]  E. Gilpin,et al.  Trends in physicians' giving advice to stop smoking, United States, 1974-87 , 1992 .

[2]  C. Husten,et al.  Clinical interventions in tobacco control. A National Cancer Institute training program for physicians. , 1991, JAMA.

[3]  M. Manley,et al.  A physicians's guide to preventing tobacco use during childhood and adolescence. , 1991, Pediatrics.

[4]  J. Elder,et al.  Correlates of health facilitator performance in a tobacco use prevention program: implications for recruitment. , 1990, The Journal of school health.

[5]  M. Fiore,et al.  Quitting smoking in the United States in 1986. , 1990, Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

[6]  Manley Mw,et al.  How to help your patients stop smoking. A National Cancer Institute program for physicians. , 1990 .

[7]  M. Kleinhenz,et al.  Smoking Assessment and Cessation Skills in the Inpatient Medicine Clerkship. , 1990 .

[8]  C. Bland,et al.  A mini-workshop to train medical students to use a patient-centered approach to smoking cessation. , 1990, American journal of preventive medicine.

[9]  P. Greenland,et al.  Attitudes toward prevention of cardiovascular diseases among first-year students at eight American medical schools, 1983-1985. , 1988, Preventive medicine.

[10]  P. Remington,et al.  Are physicians advising smokers to quit? The patient's perspective. , 1987, JAMA.

[11]  W. Stigelman,et al.  Goodman and Gilman's the Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics , 1986 .

[12]  Shank Jc.  DOC as an integral part of the community medicine curriculum. , 1985 .

[13]  V. Strecher,et al.  Smoking behavior, cessation techniques, and the health decision model. , 1985, The American journal of medicine.

[14]  K. Warner.  Cigarette advertising and media coverage of smoking and health. , 1985, The New England journal of medicine.

[15]  Orleans Ct.  Understanding and promoting smoking cessation: overview and guidelines for physician intervention. , 1985 .

[16]  C. Scott,et al.  Preventive care attitudes of medical students. , 1985, Social science & medicine.

[17]  J. Ware,et al.  Physicians' attitudes in counseling patients about smoking. , 1984, Medical care.

[18]  H. Wechsler,et al.  The physician's role in health promotion--a survey of primary-care practitioners. , 1983, The New England journal of medicine.

[19]  K. Sherin.  Smoking cessation: the physician's role. , 1982, Postgraduate medicine.

[20]  Kwentus Ja,et al.  Hypoglycemia: etiologic and psychosomatic aspects of diagnosis. , 1982, Postgraduate medicine.

[21]  L. Pederson,et al.  Compliance with physician advice to quit smoking: a review of the literature. , 1982, Preventive medicine.

[22]  W. Barker,et al.  A general model for preventive intervention in clinical practice. , 1981, Journal of medical education.

[23]  A. Blum.  Medicine vs Madison Avenue. Fighting smoke with smoke. , 1980, JAMA.

[24]  C. Fletcher,et al.  SMOKING AND HEALTH , 1972 .