AHEC Program Receives $4 Million to Expand Tobacco Training and Cessation Initiative

Over the past seven years, the Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) program in NSU’s College of Osteopathic Medicine has earned national recognition for its annual Tobacco Cessation and Prevention Training Initiative, which provides vital instruction to NSU medical, nursing, and pharmacy students who then promulgate the tobacco prevention/cessation message to a multitude of Broward County elementary, middle, and high school students.

However, thanks to a new two-year, $20 million pilot program established by the Florida Legislature in the summer of 2007, the five existing statewide AHEC programs, which form the Florida AHEC Network, will each be receiving $4 million over a two-year period to extend their tobacco training and cessation services to a significantly broader audience within their catchment areas.

“This is an extremely significant development because it allows the five Florida AHEC programs to provide tobacco training to a range of health professionals and offer cessation services to people across the state,” said Steven Zucker, D.M.D., M.Ed., who serves as NSU-COM’s associate dean for community affairs and AHEC Program director. “The Florida AHECs have already been working on tobacco-related issues on a small scale, but these additional funds will allow us to collaborate with many other universities and community-based agencies on a much greater scale.”