Adherence to Pharmacological Smoking Cessation Interventions: A Literature Review and Synthesis of Correlates and Barriers.

Joseph McClernon, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and founder/director of the Center for Addiction Science and Technology (CfAST). He is the Associate Director of the Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI).  During his tenure with CTSI, his leadership has been critical to building a culture of evaluation and continuous improvement, in strengthening the institute’s partnership with North Carolina Central University and other regional partners, and in planning strategy and development for the institute. 

Dr. McClernon earned a Ph.D. in clinical psychology in 2001 from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Duke in 2002. He served as Director of the Addiction Division in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences from 2012-2020. His research is focused on increasing our understanding of tobacco use, developing new and more effective interventions to nicotine dependence, and informing the FDA’s regulation of tobacco products. He has served as a site-PI and Co-I for more than ten years in the Center for the Evaluation of Nicotine in Cigarettes (CENIC)— a national consortium that has provided the bulk of evidence to the FDA for informing national policies that will reduce nicotine in cigarettes to non-addictive levels, thus saving millions of lives. Dr. McClernon is now leading efforts to transition CENIC’s focus to public health interventions that ensure the new policy will be implemented in ways that enable equitable outcomes for marginalized groups. Other regulatory science research has evaluated the effects of nicotine in cigarettes on a model of cigarette experimentation, the impact of flavors in cigarettes and e-cigarettes, and the influence of product characteristics and policy on multiple tobacco product use. He has led other groundbreaking research on the influence of drug-associated environments on drug use, relapse, and treatment; tobacco use disparities among individuals with comorbid psychiatric (e.g., ADHD, serious mental illness) and health (e.g., HIV; chronic pain) problems.

Dr. McClernon has actively mentored early career individuals from high school students through early career faculty. His former postdoctoral fellows are faculty or staff scientists at academic medical centers, government agencies, and research institutes. He has been continuously NIH-, FDA-, and foundation- funded since 2002. He has authored/co-authored more than 170 peer-reviewed publications, has two patents, has served as chair of NIH grant review panels, and is the recipient of numerous awards including the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco Jarvik-Russell New Investigator Award. In 2024 he was recognized for excellence in mentoring when he was awarded the Career Mentoring Award in Clinical Research by the Duke University School of Medicine.

Dr. Bosworth is a health services researcher and Deputy Director of the Center of Innovation to Accelerate Discovery and Practice Transformation (ADAPT)  at the Durham VA Medical Center. He is also Vice Chair of Education and Professor of Population Health Sciences. He is also a Professor of Medicine, Psychiatry, and Nursing at Duke University Medical Center and Adjunct Professor in Health Policy and Administration at the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research interests comprise three overarching areas of research: 1) clinical research that provides knowledge for improving patients’ treatment adherence and self-management in chronic care; 2) translation research to improve access to quality of care; and 3) eliminate health care disparities. 

Dr. Bosworth is the recipient of an American Heart Association established investigator award, the 2013 VA Undersecretary Award for Outstanding Achievement in Health Services Research (The annual award is the highest honor for VA health services researchers), and a VA Senior Career Scientist Award. In terms of self-management, Dr. Bosworth has expertise developing interventions to improve health behaviors related to hypertension, coronary artery disease, and depression, and has been developing and implementing tailored patient interventions to reduce the burden of other chronic diseases. These trials focus on motivating individuals to initiate health behaviors and sustaining them long term and use members of the healthcare team, particularly pharmacists and nurses. He has been the Principal Investigator of over 30 trials resulting in over 400 peer reviewed publications and four books. This work has been or is being implemented in multiple arenas including Medicaid of North Carolina, private payers, The United Kingdom National Health System Direct, Kaiser Health care system, and the Veterans Affairs.

Areas of Expertise: Health Behavior, Health Services Research, Implementation Science, Health Measurement, and Health Policy