Apple has introduced ResearchKit, an open source software framework designed for medical and health research. Apple says the framework will enable doctors and scientists to gather data more frequently and more accurately from participants using iPhone apps. ResearchKit will study for health issues like asthma, breast cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and Parkinson’s disease.
Access to user data will understandably be opt in where the user will have to grant the permission to specific apps to access data from the health app like weight, blood pressure, glucose levels and asthma inhaler use. Apps can also request from a user, access to the accelerometer, microphone, gyroscope and GPS sensors in iPhone to gain insight into a patient’s gait, motor impairment, fitness, speech and memory Users decide if they want to participate in a study and how their data is shared.
Apple’s initiative is interesting considering Apple and researchers can directly tap into a base of millions of users and even a percent of iPhone users opt-in, we’re still looking at a considerable number.
Some of the apps developed with ResearchKit support are Parkinson mPower, GlucoSuccess, MyHeart Counts, Share the Journey and Asthma Health.
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