Digital Innovations in Tobacco Cessation: From Research to Real-World Reach

Dr. Michael Businelle is a tenured Professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of Oklahoma, and Co-Leader of the Stephenson Cancer Center’s Cancer Prevention and Control Program. He also Co-Directs the TSET Health Promotion Research Center which is staffed by over 145 employees. He is a national leader in the development of smartphone-based assessment and intervention tools. To date, his Insight^TM mHealth platform has supported 118 studies including over 60 that were funded by the NIH. Since 2011, he has been the PI, Co-I, consultant, or mentor on 70 studies that have used smartphones to collect data and/or intervene in real-time. He currently leads 4 active NIH-funded randomized controlled trials focused on smoking cessation and/or alcohol cessation/reduction.

Dr. Andrea Pratt (she/her/hers) is a licensed psychologist and Clinical Director at Kick It California where she provides supervision of the training, clinical operations, and development of tobacco cessation protocols for the program. She specializes in health psychology, and her clinical work has focused on treatment of tobacco use disorder, insomnia disorder, chronic pain and brief interventions for mood disorders. She has also developed expertise in treating tobacco cessation among individuals with mental illness.

Megan Jacobs, MPH is the Senior Vice President of product for the Innovations center at Truth Initiative, where she brings an empathic, user-centered approach to product design that is key to the successful quit-smoking and vaping programs used by millions of people looking to break free from addiction. Ms. Jacobs oversees product development for all Truth Initiative’s digital programs to help people quit smoking, vaping, or using any type of tobacco. She is the architect of Truth Initiative’s groundbreaking vaping cessation programs for teens and young adults. Her work on EX Program includes direct-to-consumer, enterprise, and academic research dimensions. She has served on the Counter Tools board of directors since 2020 and is a 2022 Emerging Social Purpose Leadership Fellow at the Aspen Institute American Express Leadership Academy 2.0.