Background: Tobacco cessation is the most effective intervention for reducing the progression of disease in COPD patients and reducing mortality. Varenicline is the most effective drug to treat tobacco use disorder. The American Thoracic Society strongly recommends initiation of Varenicline for smoking cessation, even in patients who are not ready to quit. Hospitalist initiation of [...]

Background: Inpatient hospitalization represents a key time for patients who use tobacco to quit smoking, and inpatients who receive smoking cessation counseling, nicotine replacement, and referral to outpatient resources have increased quit rates six weeks after hospital discharge. However, in 2014, only 34.5% of tobacco users admitted to our 600-bed academic hospital were documented as [...]

Background: Hospitalization provides an opportunity to provide patients who use tobacco with evidence-based treatment for cessation, including nicotine replacement therapy, motivational interviewing, and pharmacotherapy. However, this benefit is often lost without appropriate transitions in care to outpatient cessation resources. We have found that inpatient tobacco cessation interventions at our 600-bed urban academic medical center do [...]

Case Presentation: A 56-year-old man with a medical history of nicotine dependence, gastroesophageal disease (GERD) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) emphysema sub-type presented to the outpatient clinic for the evaluation of cough and shortness of breath. Cough was said to be productive of light-yellow sputum and he denied any associated fevers or chest pain. [...]

Background: Although most cigarette smokers want to quit, current cessation therapies have limited effectiveness. Preventing relapse is limited by insufficient understanding of the neural pathways that are triggered during relapse. With recent advances in functional connectivity analysis, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies offer the ability to better neural functional connectivity during relapse. This study [...]

Background: United States Preventive Services Task Force recommends clinicians provide smoking cessation counseling and interventions to all smokers and lung cancer screening with low dose CT scan for high-risk individuals. We aimed to determine the prevalence of smoking cessation counseling and lung cancer screening rate at the residents’ clinic and implement a multimodal plan to [...]

Background: Tobacco use remains a major public health issue in the United States as it is linked to a broad spectrum of serious diseases. Although intensive inpatient tobacco treatment programs have shown success, the impact of prescription of smoking cessation medications alone on hospital readmissions has not been thoroughly studied. This study aims to assess [...]

Case Presentation: E-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury (EVALI) emerged as a significant public health concern during a 2019 CDC outbreak that affected 2,800 individuals and caused 68 deaths nationwide. While EVALI primarily affects young males, it manifests with respiratory, gastrointestinal, and systemic symptoms that can mimic conditions like pneumonia or COVID-19, creating diagnostic [...]