FREE Webinar: Making MIQS Matter: Learn How Incentives Can Motivate Smokers to Quit

The California Smokers’ Helpline is hosting a free webinar on Thursday, May 9th from 1:30 to 2:30 pm PST, Making MIQS Matter: Learn How Incentives Can Motivate Smokers to Quit. 

Webinar Objectives:

• Understand the growing proportion of smokers in California's Medicaid (Medi-Cal)
• Describe the effectiveness and impact on program adherence of incentives in the Medi-Cal Incentives to Quit Smoking (MIQS) project
• Identify statewide outreach strategies and Helpline caller response
• Describe how the CA Quits project and the Helpline can facilitate future incentive implementation

Featured Presenters

Shu-Hong Zhu, Ph.D.
Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health
Director of the Center for Research and Intervention in Tobacco Control (CRITC), UCSD

Shu-Hong Zhu, Ph.D. is a Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health and the Director of the Center for Research and Intervention in Tobacco Control (CRITC) at the University of California, San Diego. His tobacco control research focuses on two tracks: treatment research for individual smokers and population analysis of large datasets. He has been the Principal Investigator for the California Smokers’ Helpline since its inception in 1992. The Helpline is internationally recognized for its scientific innovation and its dedication to the dissemination of research findings to public health services. His recent work focuses on the interface of individual- and population-based approaches to smoking cessation and the effects of social norms on smoking behavior. He examines how population-level tobacco use patterns change in response to public health policy or to social norms. This also includes examination of the impact of emerging tobacco products on population-level tobacco use patterns and the market-driven influence on health behavior. Dr. Zhu has received many awards, including the California Wellness Foundation/ University of California Wellness Lecture Award and the APHA Excellence Award from the American Public Health Association.

Elisa Tong, MD, MA
Associate Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, UC Davis
Project Director, CA Quits

Dr. Elisa Tong is an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Tong received her bachelors, master’s in health services research, and medical degrees at Stanford University. She completed her clinical and research training at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and UCSF, and continues to work in general medicine in the clinic and hospital settings. Her research area of interest is in tobacco control policy and cessation issues, with special interests in disparities and secondhand smoke. She has been Project Director for UC Quits and the Statewide Outreach PI for the Medi-Cal Incentives to Quit Smoking project. In her current projects, she is the PI for a TRDRP Community Practice-Based Research project with Los Angeles Department of Health Services, and the Project Director for CA Quits and one of the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Center Cessation Initiative awards.