Doctors around the world are using iPhone to transform the way we think about health. Apps created with ResearchKit are already producing medical insights and discoveries at a pace and scale never seen before. That success has inspired Apple to widen the scope from medical research to personal care with the introduction of CareKit — a framework for developers to build apps that let you manage your own well-being on a daily basis.
For medical researchers, the first step to battling disease is understanding it. ResearchKit is helping researchers achieve that goal. An open-source framework for building apps, ResearchKit makes it easier to enrol participants and conduct studies. Since its introduction, the amount of data collected — and the insight gained — has been groundbreaking.
The biggest challenge medical researchers face is recruiting participants. Often, just a handful of people are used in a study. But the sheer number of iPhone users around the globe means that apps built on ResearchKit can enroll participants and gather data in bigger numbers than ever. Information can also be collected with far more regularity — daily or even hourly — as people go about their lives. The result is a much larger and more varied study group, more frequent data and a more accurate representation of the population.
ResearchKit makes it easy for you to sign up for and participate in a study by using the iPhone that’s already in your pocket. You no longer have to travel to a hospital or facility to complete tasks and fill out questionnaires. Instead, you can perform activities using the advanced sensors in iPhone to generate incredibly precise data wherever you are, providing a source of information that’s more objective than ever before.
