"You did a great job."
"You are strong!"
"You are in control."
Imagine having your own motivational support group with you all day. That's part of the idea behind a new kind of wrist watch that's designed to give you that extra inspiration when it's time to quit smoking.
Called the Quitting Time Watch, or QT-Watch for short, it was developed by Dr. Neal Perlman, an internal medicine doctor; and Dan Mapes-Riordan, a former NASA engineer.
The watch, marketed by ElectroMed Technologies Inc. of Chicago, provides a variety of functions. It sounds alarms when it is time for you to take cessation medication and displays messages about the benefits of quitting: "Joe, your clothes smell better" or "Joe, you have saved $150 so far."
Among other features is a cigarette button, which records details about your smoking habit and when a cigarette is being smoked; and a cigarette delay timer, which encourages you to delay lighting a new cigarette. There's also an information button, which provides data on a smoker's daily cigarette allowance, cigarettes smoked so far that day, time last cigarette was smoked and total money saved by the smoker as a result of the quitting efforts.
Mapes-Riordan, the engineer behind the project and ElectroMed's president, acknowledged that the watch has not gone through clinical trials to confirm its effectiveness, but it uses strategies, such as the positive reinforcement, that have been proven in research to work.
Perlman, an assistant professor medicine at Rush University in Chicago where he is conducting research on smoking cessation strategies, thought that he'd be more helpful to his patients if could be with them all day to provide continuous encouragement. But since that wasn't practical, the two came up with the idea for the watch, Mapes-Riordan said.
Available on a wristband or key chain clip for $139.95, the watch can be ordered at QT-Watch.com or by calling 1-866-760-5311
It comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
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