Apple ResearchKit Turns iPhones Into Medical Diagnostic Devices



Medical research is plagued by small sample sizes and inconsistent data collection. So Apple is stepping up to help health innovation with Research Kit, a new iOS software framework that lets people volunteer to join medical research studies. ResearchKit lets people take tests like saying “ahhh” to detect vocal variations, walking in a line, or tapping in rhythm to test for Parkinson’s Disease.

Users will decide how to share their data and Apple won’t see it. And to advance its evolution, ResearchKit will be open source. ResearchKit will be available next month, and the first five tests built with it will become available today. They help people participate in tests for Parkinson’s, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, asthma, and breast cancer.

Tap Test

Apple’s Jeff Williams came out on stage today at the Apple Watch event to show off ResearchKit. He explained how Apple worked with 12 research institutions to build out the app, including University Of Oxford and Stanford.

Apple learned about some of the biggest obstacles to scientific research in medicine. Finding and recruiting subjects can be tough. Paper flyers on college campuses are one of the few ways labs sign up human guinea pigs. This obstacle can lead to small sample sizes more vulnerable to inaccuracy, and less diverse samples that might not be generalizable to the world population.

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