Apple launches ResearchKit framework to help medical research

At the launch of Apple Watch, a new software framework was announced by the company. This is expected to turn 700 million iPhones into medical diagnostic tools. This is an open source framework, called ResearchKit. It will allow medical researchers to create diagnostic apps to tap into the screens and accelerometers on the iPhone, and also tap data from HealthKit apps. The first five apps built with the open source framework have been made available and will help diagnose several kinds of disorders.

At the event, details of the special applications were provided by Apple’s senior VP of operations, Jeff Williams. These applications include the mPower app, which can gauge the effects of Parkinson’s disease. This app has been developed jointly by the University of Rochester, Xuanwu Hospital at Capital Medical University in Beijing, and Sage Bionetworks. On stage at the launch of Apple Watch, some tests within the app were demonstrated by Williams. These showed how the app could measure hand tremors by using an iPhone touchscreen, vocal trembling by using the microphone and also walking balance.

The ResearchKit framework is expected to help several problems faced during medical research, and the apps are built to be quite interactive too. The other apps mentioned include a diabetes diagnostic app from Massachusetts General Hospital, a heart disease diagnostic app from Stanford and the University of Oxford, an asthma health app from Mount Sinai Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical College, and an app to help victims of breast cancer, made by the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, UCLA School of Public Health, Penn Medicine and Sage Bionetworks. Williams also said that sensitive data will be visible only to medical researchers and that, “Apple will not see your data.”