Gary G. Bennett
Bishop-MacDermott Family Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience
Education & Training
Ph.D., Duke University 2002
M.A., Duke University 1999
B.A., Morehouse College 1997
Overview
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To learn more about Dr. Bennett, please visit: drgarybennett.com
To learn more about Dr. Bennett's work with Duke Digital Health, please visit: dukedigitalhealth.org
Gary G. Bennett is the Bishop-MacDermott Family Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience, Global Health, and Medicine at Duke University. He directs Duke’s Global Digital Health Science Center (Duke Digital Health), which leverages digital health technologies to improve health outcomes in medically vulnerable populations. Dr. Bennett also leads the Duke Obesity Prevention Program and holds an appointment in the Duke Cancer Institute.
Dr. Bennett’s research program designs, tests, and disseminates digital health obesity treatments for primary care settings that serve medically vulnerable populations. Dr. Bennett developed the interactive obesity treatment approach (iOTA), which has been evaluated in several trials, both domestically and abroad. His recent work has demonstrated the effectiveness of coach-led, digital health weight loss and hypertension control interventions delivered via web, smartphone, and interactive voice response systems. His recent intervention trials in medically vulnerable communities have been the focus of numerous invited addresses for professional and lay audiences alike. He has authored more than 125 scientific papers in the past decade and his research program has been continuously supported by the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Bennett has served on numerous NIH committees, grant review panels, editorial boards, and guidelines councils. Dr. Bennett is committed to the dissemination of evidence-based treatments; he serves on science advisory and executive boards of several community, professional, and commercial organizations. He also co-founded two digital health startups: Crimson Health Solutions (acquired by Health Dialog in 2007) and Scale Down. Prior to joining Duke in 2009, Dr. Bennett served on the faculties of the Harvard School of Public Health and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Bennett earned a bachelor's degree at Morehouse College, followed by doctoral studies in clinical health psychology at Duke University, a clinical psychology internship at Duke University Medical Center and postdoctoral studies in social epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Expertise
Obesity, digital health, mHealth, intervention, medically vulnerable populations, population health, dissemination
Location
Contact
Benjamin-Neelon, Sara E., et al. “Early Child Care and Weight Status in a Cohort of Predominantly Black Infants in the Southeastern United States.” Child Obes, vol. 16, no. 2, Mar. 2020, pp. 122–28. Pubmed, doi:10.1089/chi.2019.0127. Full Text
McVay, Megan A., et al. “Dose-response research in digital health interventions: Concepts, considerations, and challenges.” Health Psychol, vol. 38, no. 12, Dec. 2019, pp. 1168–74. Pubmed, doi:10.1037/hea0000805. Full Text
Herring, Sharon J., et al. “Targeting pregnancy-related weight gain to reduce disparities in obesity: Baseline results from the Healthy Babies trial.” Contemporary Clinical Trials, vol. 87, Dec. 2019, p. 105822. Epmc, doi:10.1016/j.cct.2019.105822. Full Text
Gallis, John A., et al. “Randomization procedures for multicomponent behavioral intervention factorial trials in the multiphase optimization strategy framework: challenges and recommendations.” Transl Behav Med, vol. 9, no. 6, Nov. 2019, pp. 1047–56. Pubmed, doi:10.1093/tbm/iby131. Full Text
McVay, Megan, et al. “Provider Counseling and Weight Loss Outcomes in a Primary Care-Based Digital Obesity Treatment.” Journal of General Internal Medicine, vol. 34, no. 6, June 2019, pp. 992–98. Epmc, doi:10.1007/s11606-019-04944-5. Full Text
Patel, M. L., et al. “Early weight loss in a standalone mHealth intervention predicting treatment success.” Obesity Science & Practice, vol. 5, no. 3, June 2019, pp. 231–37. Epmc, doi:10.1002/osp4.329. Full Text
Berger, Miriam B., et al. “The Balance protocol: a pragmatic weight gain prevention randomized controlled trial for medically vulnerable patients within primary care.” Bmc Public Health, vol. 19, no. 1, May 2019, p. 596. Pubmed, doi:10.1186/s12889-019-6926-7. Full Text
Krishnan, Anirudh, et al. “A Digital Behavioral Weight Gain Prevention Intervention in Primary Care Practice: Cost and Cost-Effectiveness Analysis.” Journal of Medical Internet Research, vol. 21, no. 5, May 2019, p. e12201. Epmc, doi:10.2196/12201. Full Text
Barry, Caroline M., et al. “An Automated Text-Messaging Platform for Enhanced Retention and Data Collection in a Longitudinal Birth Cohort: Cohort Management Platform Analysis.” Jmir Public Health Surveill, vol. 5, no. 2, Apr. 2019, p. e11666. Pubmed, doi:10.2196/11666. Full Text
Steinberg, Dori, et al. “The Effect of a Digital Behavioral Weight Loss Intervention on Adherence to the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) Dietary Pattern in Medically Vulnerable Primary Care Patients: Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial.” J Acad Nutr Diet, vol. 119, no. 4, Apr. 2019, pp. 574–84. Pubmed, doi:10.1016/j.jand.2018.12.011. Full Text
Pages
Patel, Michele L., et al. “Consistent self-monitoring in a commercial app-based intervention for weight loss: results from a randomized trial.” Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 2019. Epmc, doi:10.1007/s10865-019-00091-8. Full Text
Emmons, K. M., et al. “COMPARATIVE EFFECTIVENESS OF HEALTHY DIRECTIONS-2, A MULTIPLE RISK FACTOR INTERVENTION FOR PRIMARY CARE SETTINGS.” International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, vol. 19, SPRINGER, 2012, pp. S83–84.
Selected Grants
Pursuit of Purpose and Vocation awarded by Duke Endowment (Principal Investigator). 2020 to 2024
Diet and Hypertension Management in Chronic Kidney Disease awarded by National Institutes of Health (Co-Mentor). 2019 to 2024
Guiding Academic Excellence for the Next Generation of Duke Undergraduates awarded by Duke Endowment (Principal Investigator). 2020 to 2024
Using digital health to improve diet quality among adults at risk for cardiovasclar disease awarded by National Institutes of Health (Co Investigator). 2019 to 2024
Financial and Social Behavioral Economic Incentives to Increase Physical Activity in Adolescents and Young Adults for Cardiovascular Health awarded by National Institutes of Health (Collaborator). 2018 to 2023
Duke CTSA (TL1) awarded by National Institutes of Health (Mentor). 2018 to 2023
Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health awarded by National Institutes of Health (Mentor). 2002 to 2022
Dissemination and Implementation Science in Cardiovascular Outcomes (DISCO) awarded by National Institutes of Health (Mentor). 2017 to 2022
A Pragmatic Trial of a Digital Health Intervention to Prevent Weight Gain in Primary Care awarded by National Institutes of Health (Principal Investigator). 2016 to 2021
Greenlight Plus Study:A Randomized Study Of Approaches To Early Childhood Obesity Prevention awarded by (Co Investigator). 2019 to 2021