HOW long can you go without checking emails on your smartphone, scrolling through Facebook or sending a text?

If you're the average Australian, the answer is, not very long! It might sound alarming but research shows that on average, people check their phones more than 150 times a day.

Telstra's 2014 Smartphone and Tablet Index showed more than three quarters of Australians own a smartphone and can't imagine - or remember - life without it.

About 84% of users take their smartphones wherever they go, and 71% never take time out by turning off their device.

In a world where we eat with them, sleep with them, walk and work with them - they are now becoming a tool to help save lives.

Cancer researchers have recently discovered that smartphones are a new weapon in the fight against skin cancer. It's time to add a hashtag to slip, slop, slap, seek and slide and use our tech savviness to beat cancer.

QUT and Cancer Council Queensland conducted a trail using text messaging to promote sun protection and skin checks.

More than 500 Queenslanders were recruited for the Healthy Text trial, which improved overall sun protection behaviours and skin checks over 12 months.

The study found that SMS-delivered sun protection intervention was effective, far-reaching, flexible and individualised.

Australia has the highest rate of skin cancer incidence in the world and melanoma is the most common cancer in those aged 15-44.

More than 136,000 skin cancers are diagnosed in Queensland each year - including around 3400 melanomas and 133,000 keratinocyte cancers. Nationally, more than 760,000 keratinocyte cancers are treated each year.

It was found that personalised SMS messages were an acceptable and feasible way to reach people, particularly those under 45.

Texts were personalised with each participant's name and gender, skin cancer risk factors, sunburn history and information about previous skin checks.

The successful study could lead the way for new prevention practices in the future. In fact, participants wanted more frequent text messages - an invitation too good to ignore.

In another example of smart strategies for health, Cancer Council Queensland last year launched Code Pink - a phone-based and online tool highlighting geographic disparities in the diagnosis and mortality of breast, cervical, ovarian and uterine cancers.

While the phone-based service has finished, Queensland women can still find out more about their risk via the website www.codepink.org.au, simply by entering their postcode. Users receive an instant reply outlining their risk of diagnosis and survival based on where they live.

The successful campaign got Queensland women talking and thinking about their cancer risk and the importance of early detection - all through one simple text message.

Maybe being tied to the hip with our smartphones is a good thing after all.

For more information about Cancer Council Queensland visitcancerqld.org.au or call 131120.