New iPhone Application for Smoking Cessation

Smokers who use Apple iPhones now have an application available to help them quit smoking, the GW Hatchet reported May 11.

Lorien Abroms, an assistant professor at George Washington University (GW), created “My QuitLine” – a free application for the iPhone that facilitates instant messages and phone calls between users and trained smoking-cessation counselors from the National Cancer Institute Quitline.

Using the application can double a person's chance of quitting smoking, Abroms said.

Abroms developed the application in collaboration with the GW School of Public Health and Health Services and the National Tobacco Cessation Collaborative (NTCC).

In 2008, the Public Health Service listed the application as an effective tool to help smokers stop quit in its “Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence,” guidelines.