5 examples of Apple ResearchKit usage

Apple ResearchKit apps

Today, Apple announced ResearchKit, its open-source software framework for medical and health research to help doctors and scientists gather data more accurately using iPhone apps. The Cupertino-based company also mentioned that it has managed to convince world-class research institutions to try out the new technology. Here are 5 examples Apple mentioned in its official announcement.

1. The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and LifeMap Solutions developed the Asthma Health app to facilitate asthma patient education and self-monitoring, promote positive behavioral changes and reinforce adherence to treatment plans. The study tracks symptom patterns in an individual and potential triggers for these exacerbations so that researchers can learn new ways to personalize asthma treatment.

2. 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. The application will rely on surveys and sensor data on iPhone to collect and track fatigue, mood and cognitive changes, sleep disturbances and reduction in exercise.

3. 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. The goal is to understand better how to keep hearts healthier.

4. Massachusetts General Hospital developed the GlucoSuccess app to understand how various aspects of a person’s life — including 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.

5. Finally, the Parkinson mPower app, which was developed by Sage Bionetworks and the University of Rochester, 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. Activity and survey data from the phone are combined with data from many other participants to fuel Parkinson’s research at a scale never before possible, making this the world’s largest and most comprehensive study of this disease.

Apple’s ResearchKit will be released as an open source framework next month, providing researchers with the ability to contribute to specific activity modules in the framework, like memory or gait testing, and share them with the global research community to further advance what we know about disease.