New “Necklace” Could Help Cigarette Smokers Quit
A new, wearable heat-tracking device called the SmokeMon presents the possibility of an effective tool for helping smokers quit and avoid relapse.
Developed by a research team led by Nabil Alshurafa, PhD, Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine (Behavioral Medicine), the device has reliably been able to detect data that sheds light on an individual's "smoking topography" (smoking pattern, including the timing of a puff, number of puffs, puff volume, how long a puff took, etc.). The device then sends that data in real time to a smartphone app. Reliably recording this information will "allow us to rewrite how we understand the relationship between smoking behavior, relapse, and tobacco-related diseases in more fine-grained detail," Dr. Alshurafa explained.
On February 21, 2023, Dr. Alshurafa was interviewed about this new technology on Fox 32 Chicago News.
