Western Baptist hosts Tobacco Cessation Symposium
Tobacco Cessation Symposium offered
for healthcare professionals
Healthcare professionals are invited to a free Tobacco Cessation Symposium on Saturday, Aug. 22, at the Baptist Heart Center Auditorium. The symposium will be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., with registration at 8:30 a.m.
The program is open to physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, nurses, respiratory therapists and other interested healthcare professionals. Physicians and nurses can earn Continuing Medical Education credit hours. Lunch is provided, and space is limited. Register by Aug. 20 by phoning (270) 575-2723.
Paducah allergist/immunologist Bradley Rankin, M.D., will moderate. Topics and their presenters include:
- “Cigarettes: A modern plague, but a pandemic for all ages” and an update of the U.S. Public Health Service Clinical Practice Guidelines by Murray native Richard Hurt, M.D., founder and director of the Mayo Clinic Nicotine Dependence Center.
- “Smokeless tobacco: Harm reduction or a safer form of arsenic” and “The physician’s role in ending the tobacco pandemic: Clinic, classroom and community” by Alan Blum, M.D., founder of the Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society at the University of Alabama.
- “Using motivational interviewing to help your patients stop smoking” by Scott Strayer, M.D., associate professor at the University of Virginia Health System, and developer of the first point-of-care smoking cessation counseling handheld software program, now posted at www.smokefree.gov/hp-hcsit.html.


