During Apple‘s highly-anticipated keynote on Monday, the topic of health was surprisingly the second announcement of the morning, taking precedence even over new iPads and iPhones.
On stage at Apple HQ in Cupertino, Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams shared some of the discoveries that have been made as a result of data collected from Apple’s ResearchKit platform. Through their Asthma Health app, researchers at Mt. Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine in New York were able to discover asthma triggers in all 50 states. And as a result of Massachusetts General Hospital’s GlucoSuccess app, data from various physiological responses to diabetes suggested that there might be multiple diabetes subtypes.
Apple highlighted more of HealthKit and ResearchKit’s successes in a video that they also showed during the event:
In addition to showing off ResearchKit’s accomplishments, Apple also announced CareKit, a software framework that allows developers to create apps that help patients better understand and manage their health by allowing them to track symptoms and medications and share the information with doctors and/or caretakers. A couple mentioned that have already been developed include an app to provide instructions and monitor recovery for patients post-surgery and an app to monitor symptoms of Parkinson’s.
More info: Apple ResearchKit