Collaborating with medical students to reach low income tobacco users

In 2008, the AMA developed a program training medical student to educate parents of Head Start students on the health risks associated with secondhand smoke exposure. In 2011, the AMA expanded this collaboration with medical students to develop a pilot program at Chicago medical schools in student-run clinics. These clinics provide teaching and skill building opportunities and are important contributors to patient care. Student-run clinics see an estimated 36,000 annual patient-physician visits providing medical services to disadvantaged patients, who typically have higher rates of tobacco use, asthma and other health outcomes associated with tobacco use. Methods: Program components included training modules, patient materials and paid media. The materials were produced in multiple languages including Urdu and Hindi as well as addressed smokeless products such as paan and gutka. The state tobacco quitline fax referral system was implemented at each clinic and supported with a targeted transit campaign. Transit ads were on bus routes that corresponded to clinic locations and through neighborhoods with at risk populations potentially reaching not only the clinic patients, but the general public. Results: The initiative demonstrated the effectiveness of medical students in reaching low-income populations with clinical interventions. The transit ad campaign resulted in an increase in calls to the quit line. Conclusion: Student-run clinics utilize student enthusiasm to connect a public health problem with a medical intervention to serve low income patients. Medical students are an excellent resource to reach an ethnically and racially diverse patient population with preventive medicine interventions to eliminate tobacco use.