The Multi-State Collaborative held its fourth annual conference on October 28th and 29th 2010 at the Emory Conference Center in Atlanta, GA. We:

• Discussed current opportunities (and challenges) to improve cessation benefit coverage and promote systems changes in healthcare to address tobacco use
• Identified strategies and new collaborations to promote policy and sustainable systems in healthcare
• Facilitated exchange of data and best practices among states and national partners

Who Attended: State tobacco control programs and their partners, Medicaid agencies, healthcare organizations, and national organizations with cessation-related goals.

Speakers included:

• Rosemarie Henson, MSSW, MPH, US/HHS, Office of Assistant Secretary for Health
  
• Michael Fiore, MD, MPH, Director, University of Wisconsin, Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention
  
• Ursula Bauer, PhD, MPH, Director, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
  
• David Abrams, PhD, Executive Director, Schroeder Center, American Legacy Foundation

Download all speaker bios here.

The conference brought together state and national-level policy-makers, researchers, and practitioners to identify strategies to increase access to tobacco cessation. Speakers and panelists discussed opportunities in the changing healthcare environment (e.g. health care reform, federal HHS initiatives, HIT) to improve benefit coverage and increase tobacco interventions in healthcare nation-wide. Experts and practitioners led workshops on current topics such as principles for working with health care systems, performance standards and alternative payment systems as change drivers, integration of tobacco into new care delivery models, and best case models and methods for incorporating tobacco into EMRs.


Click here to view the agenda.


For more information: contact Caroline Cranos at caroline.cranos@umassmed.edu with any questions.

Thank you to our conference sponsors: