Apple has finally opened up ResearchKit to be available to medical researchers, a framework that will essentially allow medical researchers to use data collected by users' iPhones for their research.
It is expected that this system could have a huge effect on how medicine and medical research works today. iPhone users will, of course, have to opt in to allow researchers to use their data, however, the more people who do opt in, the more data researchers will have to work with.
The new platform will significantly impact medical research in a number of ways. There are a number of problems with how medical researchers currently conduct their research. One of the most important of those is the fact that often, researchers struggle with being able to find a well-sized pool of people for things like surveys or tests from which to gather data. With the millions of millions of people who use iPhones, there is a real potential here for this to not be much of an issue anymore.
In fact, over 60,000 have signed up to use the apps associated with ResearchKit in a few short weeks. The apps, from major universities and medical institutions, target different diseases, and users can use them to input their health data and to take tests that offer data about their health. All of these tests and surveys can be taken straight from a user's iPhone.
Another important factor in the app is that Apple itself does not have any access to the data that is gathered through the tests and surveys. Instead, it will go straight to the institutions conducting the research. This should remove a lot of fear that people have about large tech companies gathering data on users and what these companies do with the data.
Another important factor in which that ResearchKit could greatly help is the fact that surveys are often a little biased. While ResearchKit will, by definition, only be used by those who use an iPhone, those people can span a number of demographics and areas.
These studies could directly affect both how patients are treated and how health care systems treat people with certain conditions.
Apple has shown a growing interest in the health sector over the past year or so. The company also recently unveiled HealthKit, which enables users to track their health and fitness data, setting goals for themselves and showing progress of their health. This system also has big potential to change medicine in that users can give this data over to doctors and medical specialists, enabling them to catch diseases early on and to people able to more easily help patients.
