New IHeal Project Aims to Detect Drug Cravings and Intervene to Stop Drug Use, University of Massachusetts Medical School Study

Imagine a device combining sensors to measure physiological changes. Then imagine a smartphone with software applications designed to respond to your bodily changes in an attempt to change your behavior. That is the vision behind "iHeal," currently being developed¹ by Edward Boyer from the University of Massachusetts Medical School in the US, and his colleagues. The multimedia device is an innovative combination of 'enabling technologies' which can detect developing drug cravings and intervene as the cravings develop to prevent drug use. Boyer and team's preliminary data and key findings² to date are published online in Springer's Journal of Medical Toxicology.³