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About the Cover: Both osteopathic and allopathic medical schools receive failing grades for giving inadequate attention to tobacco dependence in their curricula. The schools do not meet current national recommendations in a consistent manner. Moreover, medical school faculty have failed to identify, prioritize, or implement effective training at the undergraduate level as called for by the National Cancer Institute expert panel 12 years ago. A lack of expertise and training among faculty, insufficient existing curriculum materials, or the absence of leadership and focus among academicians to design curricula addressing skills necessary to treat patients for tobacco dependence—either singly or in combination—may account for this deficit. As the focus of this issue indicates, there exists a great need for a nationally coordinated effort to stimulate faculty and medical students to develop the skills to reduce morbidity and mortality from tobacco-induced diseases.

(Cover design by Michele Mata; photographs of smoke and cigarette butts by John Sprovieri; background photograph [MD1035] by Don Carstens from Artville LLC Medical Imaging.)