Doctors Told To Warn Patients

Doctors should routinely ask patients about their tobacco use and actively work to get those who smoke, chew or sniff tobacco to quit, according to new guidelines released on Tuesday by the U.S. Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, an arm of the Department of Health and Human Services.

The guidelines will be published today in a special issue of the weekly Journal of the American Medical Association to be devoted entirely to tobacco. “I wouldn’t say it’s malpractice not to inquire about tobacco, but it is now a standard of care doctors should meet,” said Dr. Randolph Smoak, AMA secretary treasurer. “It’s a whole cultural change for someone to quit smoking and doctors should try to help them.”

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which is active in anti-smoking programs, on Tuesday announced a grant to the medical organization to print the new practice guidelines and distribute them to 200,000 doctors. Although 70 percent of the nation’s 46 million adult smokers say they want to quit, only 50 percent have ever been urged to do so by their doctors, said Dr. Michael K. Fiore at the University of Wisconsin Medical School.