HCP Assistant Professor Ellen Meara has been tapped to serve on an Institute of Medicine committee that will focus on smoking cessation in military and veteran populations. The committee will identify ways in which the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Veterans Administration (VA) can work together to improve the health of both active-duty personnel and veterans with regard to smoking. The goals of the committee include the following:

• Identify policies and practices that might be used by the Defense Department to prevent initiation of smoking and tobacco use in the military.

• Identify policies or potential barriers that might inhibit broader implementation of evidence-based tobacco-use cessation care within both the Defense Department and the VA.

• Identify opportunities for increased access to tobacco-use and smoking cessation within the VA and the Defense Department.

• Evaluate changes, including changes in policy, that could help lower smoking and tobacco-use rates in military and veteran populations.

• Identify policies and practices that address unique tobacco-use cessation needs of special populations in the Defense Department and the VA, including populations such as those with psychiatric or other substance-use disorders, populations with chronic medical comorbidities, women, and others.

• Recommend research approaches for reducing initiation of smoking and promoting smoking cessation.