Apple Announces ResearchKit For IPhone

(RTTNews) - Apple Inc (AAPL) on Monday announced ResearchKit - an open source software framework designed for medical and health research - that helps doctors and scientists gather data more frequently and more accurately from participants using iPhone apps. Apple plans to release ResearchKit next month.

According to the tech giant, leading research institutions have already developed apps with ResearchKit for studies on asthma, breast cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and Parkinson's disease. Users decide if they want to participate in a study and how their data is shared.

"iOS apps already help millions of customers track and improve their health. With hundreds of millions of iPhones in use around the world, we saw an opportunity for Apple to have an even greater impact by empowering people to participate in and contribute to medical research," said Jeff Williams, Apple's senior vice president of Operations.

Developed by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and LifeMap Solutions, the Asthma Health app is designed to facilitate asthma patient education and self-monitoring, promote positive behavioral changes and reinforce adherence to treatment plans according to current asthma guidelines.

The Share the Journey app, developed by the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Penn Medicine, Sage Bionetworks and UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, is a research study that aims to understand why some breast cancer survivors recover faster than others, why their symptoms vary over time and what can be done to improve symptoms.

Developed by Stanford Medicine, the MyHeart Counts app measures activity and uses risk factor and survey information to help researchers more accurately evaluate how a participant's activity and lifestyle relate to cardiovascular health.

Massachusetts General Hospital developed the GlucoSuccess app to understand how various aspects of a person's life—diet, physical activity and medications—affect blood glucose levels. The app can also help participants identify how their food choices and activity relate to their best glucose levels, enabling them to clearly see correlations and take more active roles in their own well-being.

Developed by Sage Bionetworks and the University of Rochester, the Parkinson mPower app helps people living with Parkinson's disease track their symptoms by recording activities using sensors in iPhone. These activities include a memory game, finger tapping, speaking and walking.

Apple said ResearchKit apps are available on the App Store in the US and will be rolling out to more countries in the future. iPhone 5, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and the latest generation of iPod touch support ResearchKit apps.