Abstract

Tobacco smoking is a major risk factor for many chronic diseases, which led to the popularity of electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) and showed to be an effective tool for tobacco smoking cessation. However, existing studies on e-cigarette use were based on users’ self-reported data. Detailed and accurate e-cigarette use records can be used to better understand e-cigarette use behaviour and design appropriate tobacco smoking cessation plan. Therefore, a platform for real-time data capture, transmission and cloud storage of e-cigarette usage is suggested to address these issues.

The application of cloud platform for data transfer, storage and analysis on medical research is still at a novel stage. In this study, a cloud-based infrastructure is established for data collection and storage of captured e-cigarette use behaviour; it consists of an e-cigarette, a smartphone, a smartphone application (APP) and a cloud server. Whenever the e-cigarette is inhaled, the time and number of puff will be transmitted to the APP through Bluetooth signal and then uploaded and stored to the cloud through the internet-connected smartphone. The flow of data transmission is performed automatically. E-cigarette smoking history can be recalled in real time and presented in the APP.

This remote cloud platform provides efficient analytical performance on a huge volume of data with high velocity of data creation. The sufficient data accuracy and completeness of e-cigarette use records help to better understand the behaviour and safety of e-cigarette usage and to plan an effective tobacco smoking cessation programme.