Tobacco Outreach Education Program
Mission
The mission of the Tobacco Outreach Education Program (TOEP) is to deliver the highest quality education and training in tobacco control principles and practices to health care professionals and the public locally, nationally, and worldwide and to develop new, exemplary methods of tobacco control education and training using state-of-the-art science and technology.
From its humble beginnings as a small-scale, live smoking cessation/prevention program in four Texas communities, the TOEP has grown to include multilevel educational components in combating tobacco use in Texas, nationally, and internationally. Alexander V. Prokhorov, M.D., Ph.D., the program’s Director, has been instrumental in promoting tobacco control globally through six TOEP initiatives:
- the ASPIRE curriculum for high school and middle school students,
- the continuing medical education (CME) series for health care providers,
- local, national and international presentations and training seminars for the scientific community,
- MD Anderson Cancer Center institutional and external partnerships,
- postdoctoral fellowship training and
- comprehensive research projects and initiatives.
The TOEP’s primary focus has been the dissemination of tobacco prevention and cessation tools among youth, postdoctoral training, and reaccrediting the training program for health care providers in smoking cessation counseling and treatment of their patients.
ASPIRE
ASPIRE is an online, bilingual multimedia program developed by The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. It is a teen-savvy tobacco prevention and cessation program used by middle and high school students across the United States and internationally.
CME Training
The Tobacco Outreach Education Program (TOEP) provides online, continuing medical education (CME) credits in ethics/professional responsibility to Texas physicians at no cost. Experts from MD Anderson Cancer Center have created this tobacco prevention/cessation course to help physicians counsel their patients on the benefits of smoking prevention and cessation.
