Affiliation:

Clinical Assistant Professor, Medicine, UBC
Medical Lead, SPH Smoking Cessation Clinic

About:

Dr. Khara is a UK trained physician, who joined Vancouver Coastal Health in 2003 having previously worked as an Addiction Medicine Consultant at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto. Certified in 2006 by the American Society of Addiction Medicine, his current work primarily focuses on treating tobacco use disorder but increasingly extends into other areas of tobacco control.

Clinical commitments include leading the St. Paul’s Hospital Smoking Cessation Clinic where individuals with tobacco use disorder are offered evidence-based treatment. He also acts as an adviser to the Office of The Chief Medical Health Officer at VCH on wider tobacco control matters. Dr. Khara has been involved in training health care professionals and students throughout Canada to optimally treat tobacco use disorder, speaking at many medical gatherings and also as part of the CAMH TEACH project. More recently, he has led initiatives to combat the growing problem of electronic cigarettes in high schools, speaking both with educators and students in a variety of settings. He has also worked in an advisory capacity with the government of Nunavut to assist in their tobacco control initiatives. He is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia, Faculty of Medicine.

Dr. Khara’s research efforts have mainly focused on “hard-to-treat” populations and have been published in scientific medical journals. He has also been actively involved in many areas of tobacco control advocacy including providing expert testimony in a number of legal challenges to smoke-free legislation. These include the 2014 challenge by the Vancouver “hookah houses” and, most recently, cases relating to multi-unit dwellings. He also appeared as an expert witness before the Standing Committee on Health in order to contribute to the development of a federal regulatory framework for electronic cigarettes.

Areas of interest:

Smoking cessation; Smoking and vaping; Tobacco use disorder

Contact info:

604-875-4800 (select option 2)
Milan.Khara@vch.ca
604-875-5794
Smoking Cessation Clinic Information

Publications:

Additional information:

Smoking Cessation Support Group

This free group welcomes drop-ins, no appointment or registration is needed
Every Wednesday, from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Room 4166, Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre,
Vancouver General Hospital, 2775 Laurel Street, Vancouver, B.C. V5Z 1M9