Kick the cigarette addiction with upcoming tool
Key Takeaways
A new device may soon be available to help patients stop smoking and remain tobacco-free.
The device looks like a necklace and will relay smoking data to an app.
The cost for the device may be lower than other similar devices.
A new device, SmokeMon, may soon be available to help patients quit smoking. Designed to look like a necklace, the device will track the wearer’s smoking to better inform them of their smoking habits. In turn, they can possibly quit or remain tobacco-free.
“We can detect when the cigarette is being lit, when the person holds it to their mouth and takes a puff, how much they inhale, how much time between puffs, and how long they have the cigarette in their mouth,” said Nabil Alshurafa, associate professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in a release.
The necklace will relay information to an app that can be tracked by the patient, Alshurafa told MDlinx. The overall goal is to help patients receive support before they possibly relapse and begin smoking again.
“For many people who attempt to quit smoking, a slip is one or two cigarettes or even a single puff. But a slip is not the same as a relapse (going back to smoking regularly). A person can learn from slips, by gaining awareness that they did not fail, they just had a temporary setback. To avoid a relapse, we can then begin to shift their focus on how we handle their triggers and deal with cravings,” said Alshurafa in a release.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), In 2020, about 30 million people in the United States smoked cigarettes.[]
“We did not finalize a cost model, however, we presume it'll be significantly lower in cost than the existing devices used for capturing smoking topography, and similar to other wrist-worn wearables on the market. Depending on how many units we produce, we can significantly reduce the cost of the devices,” Alshurafa told MDlinx.
The next steps include gathering more information and proving the efficacy of the device. Then the device will go through approvals with the Federal Drug Administration.