Will you use your Apple iPhone to support medical research?

Apple did it again. They created something new and novel in the technology field, and they’re hoping it will change the world. In fact, some say that this may be Apple’s most important product ever.

In April 2015, Apple launched ResearchKit – an open source, software platform that allows medical researchers to create their own apps to recruit patients and control their own medical studies. ResearchKit allows iPhone users, like you and me, to contribute and participate in medical research.

The major benefit of ResearchKit is that it reduces the amount of paperwork that institutions typically use to acquire information and widens the pool of participants. In addition, the apps are easy to download, and interested users just need to give their consent. Currently, ResearchKit is collecting data from interested participants to study a variety of conditions such as Parkinson’s Disease, asthma, breast cancer, and diabetes.

Heralded a success already

The first ResearchKit app has already launched and is considered a success, having recruited thousands of participants in just a few days. Known as mPower for Mobile Parkinson Disease Study, this app tracks the symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease (PD). This research study seeks to understand why some people with PD have different symptoms than other people with PD, and why a person’s symptoms and side effects can vary over time.

Apple’s domination of the smartphone is making ResearchKit easy.

Research shows that 1 billion smartphones are purchased each year. Globally, Apple iPhone sales represent the largest chunk of that pie – more than 74 million iPhones were purchased in first quarter 2015. The rise of smartphone sales also pushes Apple to expand their iPhone technology.

For example, Apple has kept pace with the fitness trackers out there, and has surpassed them in many ways by offering iPhone apps that have the capability to monitor our sleep, how many steps we take, our heartrate, and even our level of perspiration, sunlight exposure, and stress!

The advantage of iPhone users interested in participating in Apple ResearchKit is that they never have to visit a lab or go to a hospital to give blood. Their iPhone is the only tool they need.

Privacy concerns

Of course, one’s medical information is intensely private and persuading one to reveal it can be tricky. Apple is counting on iPhone users’ interest in helping contribute to medical research that will benefit society, and possibly themselves.

According to Apple, they are not seeing or using the data; they are using the iPhone as a vehicle so users can share their information with the global research community. But some are concerned that since ResearchKit is based upon personal and cloud computing, it remains vulnerable.

Apple says it has worked with five medical institutions to come up with a series of apps that target specific diseases and conditions, and carefully ensured that all medical, ethical, and legal concerns were satisfied.

Will ResearchKit be our modern Penicillin?

The discovery of penicillin is considered one of the world’s biggest medical breakthroughs. By fighting bacteria in the body, penicillin prevented untold numbers of people dying from infections and deadly wounds. In 1945, two scientists received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for their research on penicillin. Today, we all take antibiotics for granted; yet it was an enormous news story in the 1940s.

But ResearchKit, of course, represents a very different breakthrough. Although it’s not a pill to be ingested, or an immunization shot, its recent success says something about the time we’re living in. The once, tightly-controlled gates of the medical research community are opening, and there is a sense of democratization here. If you can download an app on your iPhone, you, too, can contribute.

And, who knows…you may be helping your grandchildren someday.

Sources:

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/apples-researchkit-takes-medical-research-years-117781601479.html