Mathew Driver
Building on
the success of its ResearchKit program, Apple has announced the launch of a new
software framework designed to make it easier to build apps that enable people
to actively manage their own medical conditions.
Apple's new CareKit
program contains digital health tools that will enable people to track care
plans and monitor symptoms.
The new CareKit
program provides digital health tools that make it easier to develop solutions
that give individuals the ability to keep track of care plans, monitor symptoms
and medication, as well as providing insights that help people better
understand their own health.
With the ability to
share information with doctors, nurses or family members, CareKit apps are
intended to help people take a more active role in the management of their
health.
"We're thrilled
with the profound impact ResearchKit has already had on the pace and scale of
conducting medical research, and have realized that many of the same principles
could help with individual care," said Jeff Williams, Apple's chief
operating officer.
"We believe that
giving individuals the tools to understand what is happening with their health
is incredibly powerful, and apps designed using CareKit make this a reality by
empowering people to take a more active role in their care."
|
CareKit:
four basic modules
to aid
health monitoring
|
The open-source
development platform will launch next month and will include four basic modules.
The first, "Care Card" helps people track their individual care plans
and action items, such as taking medication or completing physical therapy exercises. Activities can
automatically be tracked and entered using sensors in the Apple Watch or
iPhone.
 |
| Apple's new CareKit program contains digital health tools that will enable people to track care plans and monitor symptoms. |
Care Cards have
already been incorporated into a post-surgical care app that has been developed
by the Texas Medical Center. Using the CareKit module, the app allows users to
easily keep track of post-surgical needs - like monitoring pain levels,
temperature, range of mobility and medication - and helps patients stay
connected and share data with doctors and care teams.
The "Symptom and
Measurement Tracking" module will let users easily record their symptoms
and how they are feeling, as well as tracking quantitative data from sensors
for things like monitoring temperature for possible infections or measuring
pain or fatigue. Progress updates can include
simple surveys, photos that capture the progression of a wound or activities,
calculated by using the iPhone's accelerometer and gyroscope, like quantifying
range of motion.
CareKit also includes
an "Insight Dashboard" that maps symptoms against the action items in
the Care Card to easily show how treatments are working, and a
"Connect" module that makes it simple for people to share information
and communicate with doctors, care teams or family members about their health
and any change in condition.
App may increase understanding of Parkinson'smPower is a research app that has already begun using the CareKit modules to create a clearer picture of life with Parkinson's disease.
Since the launch of
the original mPower research app, which was built - using Apple's ResearchKit -
by the University of Rochester in conjunction with Sage BioNetworks, the app
has enrolled over 10,000 participants, making it the largest Parkinson's study
in history, with 93% of participants never having taken part in any kind of
research before.
The app helps
researchers diagnose and better understand Parkinson's disease by using the
gyroscope and other iPhone features to measure dexterity, balance, gait and
memory.
Researchers have
gained greater insight into the factors that make symptoms better or worse,
such as sleep, exercise and mood. They hope to now extend the benefit of the
research using the CareKit modules.
Dr. Ray Dorsey, David
M. Levy professor of neurology at the University of Rochester Medical Center,
comments:
"With
ResearchKit, we quickly realized the power of mobile apps for running inexpensive,
high-quality clinical studies with unprecedented reach.
We hope that CareKit
will help us close the gap between our research findings and how we care for
our Parkinson's patients day to day. It's opening up a whole new opportunity
for the democratization of research and medicine."
Other organizations
and projects that plan to build with CareKit include the Beth Israel Deaconess
Medical Center, which plans to provide patients with more insight into their
own chronic care management through home health monitoring devices that
securely store data in HealthKit .
Glow, Inc. is also
looking to incorporate CareKit modules into its pregnancy app, Glow Nurture, to
guide women through a healthier pregnancy, and One Drop hopes to empower people
with a better approach to managing their diabetes.
CareKit is the latest
in a series of programs from Apple designed to build the company's portfolio of
health-related developer tools and establish the tech-giant as a significant
driver of digital health solutions.
Written by Matthew
Driver, managing editor of The Journal of mHealth
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/308524.php
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