ResearchKit: Can Apple deliver an iPhone for healthcare?
The world never fancied touchscreen devices till Apple released the iPhone. There were many touchscreens in the market but what Apple did is “getting it the right way”. Now, the Internet Of Everything (IOT) is full of healthcare buzz and Apple has ResearchKit.
Apple, the maker of some of the most popular consumer electronics in history, has now come up with an open-source software platform that will make it easy for researchers and developers to create apps that could revolutionize medical studies, potentially transforming medicine forever – the ResearchKit.
Apple says that the iPhone that millions of people around the world are using is in itself a powerful medical research tool. The device is equipped with sensors that can track movement and take measurements. This gives researchers an opportunity to gather new types of data on a wider scale. People can choose the studies they want to join and control how much information they want to provide.
Dr. Ahmad Zbib, director of digital health and innovation at the Heart and Stroke Foundation, believes that Apple’s ResearchKit will help reduce the barriers for enrolling participants into clinical trials, overcoming geographical and financial boundaries and providing ample data with strong statistical power.
Five apps are already using ResearchKit to study asthma, Parkinson disease, diabetes, breast cancer and cardiovascular disease.
MyHeart Counts is a cardiovascular disease research app developed by researchers at Stanford University in California. The participants are to use the app to measure daily activity, fitness and cardiovascular risk. The data on physical activity is automatically captured by sensors on iPhones, the new Apple Watch or other wearable devices. Other information, such as blood pressure and cholesterol levels has to be entered by the participant.
Another app, GlucoSuccess, for diabetes, allows users to participate in a study conducted by Massachusetts General Hospital to increase understanding of how blood glucose levels are influenced by health behaviours. It records activity duration and intensity, diet information, blood glucose measurements and body weight.
However, the ResearchKit is still in its infancy and needs to address issues like, privacy, ethical practice, identity confirmation and validity of data. Moreover, some feel that this could be a “goldmine for hackers” because of vulnerabilities in Apple’s iOS mobile operating system and the recent rise in breaches of personal health information, which may be considered more valuable than financial information on the black market. Others have pointed out that health apps are not regulated in the same way as other medical software or devices and may not be subject to existing medical-information privacy laws.
Researchers are optimistic that once these issues are addressed the app can improve patients’ access to clinical trials, increase the data collection and thereby revolutionize medical research.
