The Mailman School of Public Health received a grant to create the Manhattan Tobacco Cessation Network, a program
dedicated to reducing tobacco use through evidence-based smoking cessation treatment programs. The Manhattan Tobacco
Cessation Network is one of 19 cessation centers statewide funded by the New York State Department of Health’s Tobacco
Control Program. It will be based at the Department of Sociomedical Sciences’ Center for Applied Public Health (CAPH). The
program represents a collaboration of the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC),
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and many of New York City’s leading hospitals and healthcare networks.

Smoking is the number one cause of preventable deaths in the U.S. and New York City, yet a large number of smokers still do
not get the help they need to quit. The Manhattan Tobacco Cessation Network grant will link smokers to proven treatments.
“The network’s primary goal is to promote systematic screening and counseling of all tobacco users. Through partnerships with
leading healthcare providers we are implementing strategies that will decrease smoking rates, improve the health of New
Yorkers, and save lives,” says Donna Shelley, MD, MPH, principal investigator and assistant professor of clinical
Sociomedical Sciences. According to Daniel Hyman, MD, chief medical officer of the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Ambulatory
Care Network, “This program is a critical component of our quality improvement initiatives across healthcare settings. The
center grant provides important resources to enhance tobacco treatment by more effectively identifying and treating smokers
who wish to quit throughout NewYork-Presbyterian and Manhattan.”

Co- investigators at Columbia University Medical Center are Daniel Seidman, MD, assistant clinical professor of Psychiatry
and David Albert, associate clinical professor of Dental and Oral Surgery. Additional collaborators with the Mailman School,
NewYork-Presbyterian, and CUMC include Bellevue, Harlem, Metropolitan, Lenox Hill, and St. Luke’s Hospitals; Clinical
Directors Network; Community Premier Plus; the Health and Hospitals Corporation and Group Health Insurance; and the New York
City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

In addition to designing and implementing interventions to ensure that all smokers are identified and linked to effective
treatment, the program:

– Provides ongoing technical assistance to partnering sites;

– Provides healthcare provider training on evidence based treatment of tobacco use;

– Provides resources to clinicians and patients such as self-help materials and information on pharmacotherapy, smokers’
quit lines, and other cessation resources;

– Implements referral systems for other on-site and community programs including the New York State Smokers’ Quit Line;

– Advocates for written quality assurance plans that mandate practices for tobacco use screening, training and intervention;
and

– Evaluates the impact of all interventions.

Through partnerships with communities, health departments, and allied disciplines, the Mailman School’s Center for Applied
Public Health (CAPH) is at the forefront of community driven public health research and practice, and among the leaders in
developing and implementing replicable models of community-academic partnerships that address a multitude of health issues.
The Manhattan Tobacco Cessation Center grant builds on existing partnerships and tobacco related programs such as CAPH’s
Legacy Tobacco Control Evaluation Research Network and the Center for Community Health Partnership Community Voices
Anti-Tobacco Program.

CAPH’s ongoing tobacco initiatives include tobacco control in Central Harlem and determinants of smoking initiation among
post adolescent African American women. Most recently, CAPH has been studying the effect of a community-based smoking
cessation intervention among Chinese Americans in order to estimate smoking prevalence among New York City Chinese Americans.

About the Mailman School of Public Health

The only accredited school of public health in New York City, and among the first in the nation, Columbia University’s
Mailman School of Public Health provides instruction and research opportunities to more than 850 graduate students in pursuit
of masters and doctoral degrees. Its students and over 250 multi-disciplinary faculty engage in research and service in the
city, nation, and around the world, concentrating on biostatistics, environmental health sciences, epidemiology, health
policy and management, population and family health, and sociomedical sciences. (mailman.hslumbia.edu)

New York-Presbyterian Hospital is the largest not-for-profit, non-sectarian hospital in the country. It provides state-of-the
art inpatient, ambulatory and preventive care in all areas of medicine at five major centers: NewYork-Presbyterian
hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, Children’s Hospital
of New York-Presbyterian, the Allen Pavilion, and the Westchester Division. It consistently ranks as one of the top hospitals
in the country in U.S. News & World Report’s guide to “America’s Best Hospitals.” The NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System
- an affiliation of acute-care and community hospitals, long-term care facilities, ambulatory sites, and specialty institutes
-serves one in four patients in the New York metropolitan area.

Columbia University Medical Center provides international leadership in basic, pre-clinical and clinical research, medical
education, and health care. The medical center trains future leaders in health care and includes the dedicated work of many
physicians, scientists, nurses, dentists, and other health professionals at the College of Physicians & Surgeons, the School
of Dental & Oral Surgery, the School of Nursing, the Mailman School of Public Health, the biomedical departments of the
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and allied research centers and institutions. With a strong history of some of the most
important advances and discoveries in health care, its researchers are leading the development of novel therapies and
advances to address a wide range of health conditions.

Contact: Stephanie Berger, 212-305-5635, sb2247columbia.edu

Contact: Stephanie Berger
sb2247columbia.edu
212-305-5635
Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
mailman.hslumbia.edu