iPhone now Offers Innovative Technology for Crowdsourcing Collaborative Medical Research

Apple and innovative technologies go hand in hand. Apple’s foray into Health with iPhones is a well-established story now and is getting more exciting every day. Methodical and bigger in its involvement with medical research as an outcome of its recent innovation with ResearchKit for iPhones, this technology giant is once again set to re-establish its prudence and one-upmanship in the relatively unexplored domain of crowdsourcing for health and medical research

As the story unfolds, we realise that as data scientists, technologists and medical professionals team up, Healthcare and Medical research are on the verge of an unbelievable transformation. Apple launches its most purposeful idea as yet, the ResearchKit, an open source platform to crowdsource medical research data and collaborate with institutions, researchers and scientists for the benefit of all using iPhones.

Research Kit would be available soon, but there are five pilot apps available to download and ready to use on iPhones, targeting some of the very challenging diseases of modern day.

Asthma

Parkinson's Disease

Cardiovascular Disease

Breast Cancer

Diabetes

Health Kit with iOS8 charted out the direction which brings Apple today to this milestone bound to put medical research into a completely different perspective. Seamless access to accurate data generated by HealthKit on iPhones and making it available to researchers portrays the vision that Apple is all about.

Since the data is generated by passive monitoring of activities of people volunteering to share their details like heart rates, step counts, calories and more, the data is not only accurate, it is huge. It is the result of reality mining. Predictive Analysis principles applied to this big pool of data is bound to generate apt and quintessential results.

Transforming the iPhone into a Research tool 24 * 7

Filling up forms for research is time consuming and boring. It is also tedious and takes its toll as the participants need to travel to a hospital or a medical facility to submit the details. It is one of the major reasons where entrants back out and the number of volunteers sharing data dwindle. The innovative designs from Apple assure that the millions of iPhone users across the globe contribute ever so easily simply by registering for this research. The mundane exercises of filling up forms or even remember health parameters at various times of the day are passe`.

Apple has HealthKit for this. Robust processors and precise sensors of iPhones track movements, measure parameters and save the health details automatically. ResearchKit takes on from where HealthKit stops, offering a niche platform to thinkers of all types – researchers, medical practitioners, engineers, technologists - anyone who thinks beyond the norms.

Each Apple product is a class apart by the virtue of its design and elegance. And when these combine with purposeful intentions, there can be nothing to match the combination. The advanced sensors like the accelerometer, barometer and gyroscope make sure that the data collected is precise and huge. The innovative apps and the framework itself assure that the possibilities with this high-volume accurate data generated are explored to the fullest with meaningful interpretations and predictions.

Like Apple says, it is all set to “revolutionize medical studies, potentially transforming medicine forever….”

Privacy and Apple ResearchKit for iPhones

When a trustworthy platform like Apple indulges in an issue as sensitive as health; involving very personal data, the apps within this framework have stringent guidelines for the safety and privacy of data. Not only the data on the iPhone is encrypted, it remains so during backups on iCloud both during transit and on the servers. Only data authorized by the volunteers generated by HealthKit is used by the ResearchKit.

Innovative Applications, Collaborative Crowdsourcing

For developers, the sky is the limit for fusing relevance into technology. ResearchKit is a platform which works seamlessly with the HealthKit. Collaborations with researchers to invent apps to access relevant data from the iPhone and then publish and interpret to generate useful information for medical researchers, doctors and individuals would be quite easily possible for developers. Since it is an open source framework, communities and individuals can do their bit by participating and contributing to research. It crowdsources both apps and data creating synergetic collaboration of researchers and technologists for using technology like never before in innovative and smarter ways.

Putting ResearchKit for iPhones into a Nutshell

A large volume of data with a very good variation suitable for medical research

Assured to generate a good mix of people and population across geography and races for study

All set to avoid hand written forms and human errors

Would submit surveys directly from the iPhones to collaborators

Definite regular and periodic data from each individual, giving a complete picture

Research in the real world, rather than a hypothetical world

Privacy and selective data sharing guaranteed

Easy recruitment & sign up

Would be available across the globe through Apple Stores

Downloading ResearchKit

Though ResearchKit and the related apps are available in a few select countries today, it is only time before the world can access and contribute to research. Five apps developed in close association with leading medical institutions are set to steer this very young idea onto its long course.

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