Problem/Objective: The Pharmacy Partnership for Tobacco Cessation is a national project funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation through UCSF's Smoking Cessation Leadership Center (SCLC). The SCLC has engaged multiple health professions in becoming tobacco interventionists, including but not limited to pharmacy. The Partnership consists of several hundred representatives from all sectors of the pharmacy profession: community, chain and hospital practitioners, professional organizations, pharmaceutical industry, academicians, and governmental agencies. The objective of the partnership is to promote cessation counseling throughout the entire pharmacy profession by developing the strategies and tools needed to help pharmacists become more actively involved in cessation with all patients who use tobacco.

Methods: Our approaches target both pharmacy students and licensed pharmacists, and several of our initiatives cross disciplines by facilitating other clinicians with educational efforts.

Results: The Partnership is implementing innovative projects involving pharmacy chains, NASCAR, Los Angeles County, pharmacy schools, pharmacy technician programs, and the national quit line. To date, we have disseminated the Rx for Change tobacco cessation program to 191 pharmacy faculty representing 98% of the pharmacy schools, and nearly 25,000 pharmacy students have participated in a training. The Partnership also has created a series of cessation counseling programs (e.g., a 90-minute CE program focusing on the Ask-Advise-Refer protocol) and a wide variety of cessation tools for clinicians (e.g., patient education brochures, a retreatment protocol for patients).

Conclusions: Pharmacists are engaging in tobacco cessation activities in a variety of practice settings.