Apple ResearchKit
ResearchKit is one of the latest frameworks introduced by Apple with iOS 8. This framework is basically for healthcare domain. As projected by apple, this is going to be a revolutionary tool in the field of 'Medical Research'.
According to apple, using this framework in the iOS applications, every user can be a medical research subject. The frequency of data collection will be very high, which would enable the researchers to get better insight of human health, factors affecting human health, better ways to prevent and cure the diseases.
Key Features:
- Basically for Medical Research
- Developers and researchers can use to create apps that let iOS users participate in medical research.
- Open Source
- Uses the device hardware components such as accelerometer, microphone, gyroscope and GPS sensor
- Can tap into the data generated by Health Kit.
- Takes advantage of sensors and capabilities of iPhone to track movement, take measurements, and record data.
- Users can perform activities and generate data from anywhere
Modules:
- Surveys : lets you quickly build surveys simply by specifying the questions and types of answers
- Consent: templates that you can customize to explain the details of your study and to obtain the participant’s consent.
- Active Tasks: Active tasks invite users to perform activities under partially controlled conditions using iPhone sensors to actively collect data.
Initially Five apps were introduced:
1. The Asthma Health app - Developed by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and LifeMap Solutions
2. The Share the Journey app - Developed by the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Penn Medicine, Sage Bionetworks and UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Centre.
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
3. The MyHeart Counts app - Developed by Stanford Medicine.
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
4. The GlucoSuccess app - Developed by Massachusetts General Hospital
Understand how various aspects of a person’s life—diet, physical activity and medications—affect blood glucose levels
5. The Parkinson mPower app - Developed by Sage Bionetworks and the University of Rochester. These activities include a memory game, finger tapping, speaking and walking.
Helps people living with Parkinson’s disease track their symptoms by recording activities using sensors in iPhone.
Source of information : Apple