The 5-year "CA Quits" tobacco cessation program, launched last fall through a $6 million California Tobacco Control Program award, is off to a great start. Elisa Tong, M.D. and Core Faculty member with theElisa Tong, M.D. UC Davis Center for Healthcare Policy and Research (CHPR), leads this effort to reach California's more than three million smokers via an expansion of the successful "UC Quits" program.

CA Quits utilizes a "learning collaborative" approach to help health systems integrate tobacco treatment services and reach smokers, and tobacco-topic learning collaboratives are being established in Sacramento area clinics by CA Quits team members. These collaboratives will meet monthly for discussion among clinic personnel about how to assess toabcoo use, integrate evidence-based tobacco treatment(s), and improve the quality of their services. Community clinics that will participate in the first statewide learning collaborative effort include those associated with CommuniCare Health Centers, One Community Health, Wellspace Health, Elica Health Centers and the Sacramento County Health Center.

CA Quits also is establishing learning collaboratives for Medi-Cal managed care plans like Molina Healthcare. California's Medi-Cal program covers 40 percent of the State's smokers, and Medi-Cal managed care plans cover 80 percent of the Medi-Cal population.

Other UC Davis faculty members on the CA Quits team include Ulfat Shaikh, M.D., M.P.H, Bimla Schwarz, M.D., M.P.H., and Patrick Romano, M.D., M.P.H., all affiliated with CHPR. Angela (Jackie) Kaslow, Dr.P.H., heads up the project operations team at CHPR.