Apple’s ResearchKit is a framework designed with an eye on benefiting medical research by harnessing the technology of iPhone. The first apps for ResarchKit (available starting today) target Parkinson’s, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, asthma, and breast cancer.
During the Apple launch event this morning, it was clear to see how easily this pairing could be used to benefit your health while helping researchers and healthcare professionals to gather more meaningful data (asking patients to recall pain levels days or weeks later during scheduled appointments can be difficult, whereas a ResearchKit app can capture data or make users perform ongoing tasks that will provide useful details).
ResearchKit can also make it easy for patients to sign up for studies, and then provide consent along with other content.
Apple’s Senior VP of Operations Jeff Williams was on-hand to discuss the offering this morning, and was quick to assure us all that health data collected using ResearchKit apps is not being stored by Apple and is both safe and secure. “You decide how your data is shared. You can see the data you’re sharing.”
Beyond the initial 5-app offering, ResearchKit will be available next month. Because Apple wants everybody to have access, they have made it open source (I am pretty sure that if you listened carefully, there were sounds of jaws dropping that could be heard in that auditorium this morning).
Jillian Koskie is an experienced software developer, content writer, project manager and usability design expert. With over 17 years in these roles, Jillian has enjoyed applying her skill-set to assist clients and users across a wide variety of sectors including: legal, health, and financial services. Combining these professional opportunities with a love of technology, Jillian is pleased to contribute articles, opinions, and advice to numerous news outlets, websites, and publications.
