First ResearchKit-powered Apps Target Parkinson’s, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Disease, Asthma, and Breast Cancer

We’ve seen a lot of major advancements in the health industry in the last decade, but Apple’s looking to push things even further with the introduction of ResearchKit. It’s a natural progression from last year’s launch of HealthKit, a set of tools that helps apps monitor and manage health data from users. Everything from calories burned to heart rate can be tracked through HealthKit and supported apps / tools. ResearchKit is a software framework designed to benefit medical research, essentially turning your iPhone and HealthKit into powerful research platforms. ResearchKit will be open source and users will control what data is shared, none of which actually going to Apple but instead to the app creators. People using the apps and opting into trials will decide whether to participate, decide how their data is shared, and see the data they’re sharing. The first five apps using ResearchKit were created by leaders in their respective disciplines and target research for Parkinson’s, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, asthma, and breast cancer. All five are available through the App Store today. Expect research teams to introduce future apps that aim to gather research for other diseases in the months ahead as ResearchKit lands in the hands of developers and researchers.