Mobile device could help drug users modify their behaviour

Developed by clinical researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS), the device also incorporates smartphone programming and wireless connectivity to detect physiological indications of drug cravings. It then responds with user-tailored behavioural interventions designed to prevent substance use.

Preliminary data about the multimedia device, called iHeal, was first published online in the Journal of Medical Toxicology.

According to the study’s authors, many behavioural interventions used to treat patients are ineffective outside of the controlled clinical settings where they are taught.

In a statement, they said that this failure can be attributed to several factors, including a patient’s inability to recognise biological changes that indicate an increased risk of relapse and an inability to change his or her behaviours to reduce health risk.

Edward Boyer, professor of emergency medicine at UMMS and lead author of the study, worked with colleagues at UMMS and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to design a mobile device that could be used to make behavioural interventions for substance abusers more effective outside the clinic or office environments.