There is no denying that iPhone is quite popular in the medical industry. Apple ResearchKit (ARK) is one of the main reasons for it. Scientists and doctors were having a tough time collecting data from different patients and integrating it.
Insufficient and inconsistent data would only result in delayed research. Apple well understood this problem and came up with an open source framework called Apple ResearchKit. It works closely with HealthKit and Health application to get access to the required data.
Importance of Apple ResearchKit
The information that is collected through Apple ResearchKit helps scientists to study about different diseases. With the introduction of this framework, there is no shortage of participants who contribute to medical research by merely using few simple apps. Accurate and large amount of data helps researchers to proceed in the right direction in their research.
Facts about ARK
This framework has three basic modules for apple developers to build the app: survey engine, visual consent flow, and active task. This open source framework has customizable modules for developers to come up with new elements. Tutorials on this framework and guidelines on setting up a ResearchKit project are available at http://researchkit.org/index.html.
How can one contribute to medical research with iPhone?
Based on this open source framework, app developers come up with different health related apps. When an iPhone user downloads and uses such app, they indirectly contribute to medical research by giving consent to share their health related data. These health monitoring apps use data from iPhone and other sensor laden devices that are synchronized with mobile.
Apps Built on This Framework
- Share the Journey app is designed for breast cancer patients. It works by collecting sensor data and survey forms to observe fatigue, mood changes, sleeping pattern and physical exercises undertaken in a day. Based on these facts, researchers works towards finding out as to why some patients survive and fight the disease faster than others.
- Mpower app is built for Parkinson's patients. Activities such as walking, tapping on your iPhone, playing memory games, speaking in microphone track sensory data which is then used by the app. This information is used by scientists to analyze the symptoms of the disease.
MyHeart Counts, Asthma Health, EpiWatch, SleepHealth and Autism & Beyond applications are some other names in the line. Believe it or not, this ResearchKit framework is a boon to medical industry that is helping scientists to carry out their research work faster and in a better manner.
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