“Apple” and “revolutionise” are perhaps too often used in the same sentence but with the release of its ResearchKit API it is possible the Cupertino-based company will indeed revolutionise clinical research.

Five apps were available in the United States at the March launch, including Asthma Health, which was developed alongside Mount Sinai Hospital. The idea behind the app was to collect information from sufferers of asthma that could feed back into treating the condition through self- management, for example monitoring air quality. The results have been surprisingly good: Apple reports that over half of the users not only completed an e-consent process, they also came back the next day to use the app, which is "a very high rate of return for any app, let alone a health-related app".

ResearchKit is now available outside the US. Irish software company Puca says it has plans to develop apps with it, while the Insight Centre for Data Analytics is currently evaluating its potential. Let the connected health revolution begin.

http://researchkit.github.io/blog.html#article-2