Apple announced their very own ResearchKit, an open resource software that provides health and medical researchers useful tools needed to revolutionize medical studies, Monday.
ResearchKit enables scientists and doctors to collect data on a more frequent basis from its participants through special iPhone apps, accurately. Researchers have developed applications for data gathering with regards to a couple of diseases, namely: Parkinson's disease, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, and asthma. With the use of the ResearchKit, users could decide if they will volunteer themselves for a study and decide how their information will be shared.
"iOS apps already help millions of customers track and improve their health. With hundreds of millions of iPhones in use around the world, we saw an opportunity for Apple to have an even greater impact by empowering people to participate in and contribute to medical research," Apple's Jeff Williams said during the launch.
"ResearchKit provides the minute scientific community direct access to an already diverse, global population and numerous innovative ways to gather data than ever before," he added.
Anyone who owns an iPhone can now experience the opportunity of becoming part of a research and contribute hugely in establishing updates for the above-mentioned diseases. With the apps, an iPhone user can turn his device into a diagnostic tool, Tech Crunch reported. This is made possible by its microphone, accelerometer, and touch screen functions.
Since the gathered data are medical in nature, Apple has made sure that a user's information on his Research Kit apps isn't divulged to millions without proper permissions on how it should be used by the researchers.