Kar-Hai Chu, an assistant professor of medicine and pediatrics in the Center for Research on Media, Technology, and Health, was recently awarded a 4-year, $600,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to study technology and substance use patterns. The ultimate goal of his project is to optimize cancer prevention and control.

Although many commercial smartphone applications have been created and marketed as tobacco cessation tools, none are based on scientific evidence. Chu’s work seeks to fill this gap by conducting a trial to test the usability of a smartphone-based app for tobacco cessation in young adults. In the long-term, the results of this study will inform the delivery of evidence-based tobacco cessation tools using affordable and accessible technologies.