Grand Opening and Ribbon Cutting for the Center for Tobacco-Free Living

Monday, November 17, 2008

WHAT: Members of the media are invited to tour the Mayo Clinic Center for Tobacco-Free Living, a new area featuring interactive programs and unique ways to better inform people how to combat tobacco use and dependence.

WHO: Denis Cortese, M.D., President and CEO of Mayo Clinic; Glenn Forbes, M.D., CEO, Mayo Clinic Rochester; Andrew Limper, M.D., chair, Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine; Charles Erlichman, M.D., deputy director of the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center; Jeffrey Korsmo, Chief Administrative Officer, Mayo Clinic Rochester; and Richard Hurt, M.D., director of the Nicotine Dependence Center; and others, including patients, will be available for interviews.

WHEN: Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008, 10 a.m. Please meet John Murphy from Mayo Clinic Public Affairs at the Gonda Building information desk at 9:45 a.m. Call 507-284-5005 to confirm your attendance.

WHERE: In a just-finished location high in the Gonda Building, with original equipment and information designed to excite and encourage people in the fight against tobacco use and dependence. Sporting state-of-the-art interactive media, the Center for Tobacco-Free Living presents a smart, modern way to help patients, family and health care professionals clear the air.

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Mayo Clinic is the first and largest integrated, not-for-profit group practice in the world. Doctors from every medical specialty work together to care for patients, joined by common systems and a philosophy of "the needs of the patient come first." More than 3,300 physicians, scientists and researchers and 46,000 allied health staff work at Mayo Clinic, which has sites in Rochester, Minn., Jacksonville, Fla., and Scottsdale/Phoenix, Ariz. Collectively, the three locations treat more than half a million people each year. To obtain the latest news releases from Mayo Clinic, go to www.mayoclinic.org/news. For information about research and education visit www.mayo.edu. MayoClinic.com is available as a resource for your health stories.