The Mayo Clinic Nicotine Dependence Center: A History

Pages: 126, Editing: Marjorie Toensing, Printing: Smith Printing in Ramsey, MN

In 1986, Dr. Richard Hurt and Professor Kenneth Offord met to discuss what would become the Nicotine Dependence Center (NDC). Dr. Hurt was an alumnus of the Smokers’ Clinic, started in 1975, and Professor Offord had worked with pulmonary researchers; both had become aware that research had not resulted in help for patients to stop smoking. The current requests for action were from Mayo Clinic physicians with hospitalized patients facing dire consequences if they continued to smoke. The discussion that day eventually led to the opening of the Smoking Cessation Center in 1988, and it was expanded and renamed the Nicotine Dependence Center in 1990.

In June of 2023, Dr. Hurt and Professor Offord asked me to help write the NDC history. The result of our efforts is a book (chapters listed below) that tells the story of how the Center began and grew to what it has become today.

  • Beginnings

  • Clinical Practice

  • Education

  • Research

  • Taking on the Tobacco Industry

  • New Location

  • Global Bridges

  • Making a Difference

  • Future of the Nicotine Dependence Center

  • Appendix (Timeline and list of research papers)  

“Now, after the first thirty-five years, the NDC legacy continues and horizons broaden under new leadership, but the very foundation of the NDC remains rock-solid and built upon enduring principles.” Dr. Richard Hurt