In less than 24 hours after the launch of Apple’s ResearchKit platform, Stanford University researchers announced that 11,000 people have already signed up for a cardiovascular study, Bloomberg reports. The new open source software framework is designed to help doctors and scientists recruit more participants in medical research studies needed to provide a more useful representation of the population using iPhone apps. With a user’s consent, ResearchKit can seamlessly tap into the pool of useful data generated by HealthKit — like daily step counts, calorie use, and heart rates — making it accessible to medical researchers.
“To get 10,000 people enrolled in a medical study normally, it would take a year and 50 medical centers around the country,” said Alan Yeung, medical director of Stanford Cardiovascular Health. “That’s the power of the phone.”
ResearchKit also eliminates handwritten surveys and lengthy forms — and the expensive data entry and storage that come with them for medical researchers. By allowing participants to complete tasks or submit surveys right from iPhone, ResearchKit allows doctors and researchers to spend more time performing actual research.
The first five apps launched on ResearhKit focuses on Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, asthma and breast cancer.
