Assessing the potential of a data sharing and communication facility within a cessation smartphone app (Q Sense) for patients and NHS smoking cessation advisors

Mobile phone-based support programs for quitting smoking have potential to improve the effectiveness of NHS smoking cessation support, particularly in primary care where most smokers are seen compared to other settings. We have developed a smartphone app called Q Sense which invites smokers to provide real-time information about their smoking. This includes where they are, who they are with and how they are feeling before they smoke. The app also asks smokers about their cravings and quitting confidence at the end of each day. If the smoking cessation advisors of patients using Q Sense had access to the detailed information it collects it could help them deliver more timely and tailored support. In addition, if smokers could interact with advisors through the app this might also improve outcomes and support access rates which would in turn improve the chance of Q Sense users quitting successfully.

We will explore the views of patients, who have used Q Sense alongside NHS cessation support, and cessation advisors on the potential of sharing Q Sense data and a facility for smokers and advisors to communicate via the app. The study has three elements:

1) To use Q Sense data collected by patients to guide the development of example formats for presenting Q Sense data to advisors in an easily understandable way. We also plan to analyse Q Sense data to help identify when a patient might be likely to start smoking again. This will inform whether there might be useful opportunities for Q Sense to prompt smokers to contact an advisor or to directly alert an advisor.

2) To interview patients who have used Q Sense to gain their views on a data sharing and communication facility.

3) To interview smoking cessation advisors to gain their views on the data sharing and communication facility.

Amount awarded: £27,924