It was a pleasure to work with you, as you and your team made this process a more pleasant experience for our team and the participants.
Karen Perry
On Monday, Apple announced the upcoming release of ResearchKit, which will allow researchers to gather data from iPhone users to help further medical research, Reuters reports (Steenhuysen, Reuters, 3/9).
ResearchKit is an open-source software platform that includes disease-specific applications that patients can use to track their symptoms. It can be used to gather iPhone users' data and find potential study participants (Belluz, Vox, 3/9). Users will have the option of participating in studies and indicating certain data sharing preferences. If users allow, researchers also will be able to access an iPhones accelerometer, gyroscope, GPS and microphone sensors to study participants':
Researchers also will be able to access data from Apple's HealthKit (Verel, MedCity News, 3/9). The HealthKit platform culls health data -- including asthma inhaler use, blood pressure, glucose levels and weight -- from fitness and health apps on iPhones (Reuters, 3/9). In addition, HealthKit can harness data from the newly unveiled Apple Watch. Apple will not be able to access the data (MedCity News, 3/9).
According to Reuters, ResearchKit is expected to help create study populations that are more diverse (Reuters, 3/9).
Apple Senior Vice President of Operations Jeff Williams also said that the tool would help researchers with problems of small sample sizes or issues resulting from subjective or potentially faulty data (Tahir, Modern Healthcare, 3/9).
ResearchKit will be available to the general public next month. Meanwhile, five apps built with the research tool by Apple and medical research partners are available in Apple's App Store, including apps to aid research on:
John Halamka, CIO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a member of the federal Health IT Policy committee, said, "Voluntary contribution of personal data in support of clinical research is real medical altruism." He added, "I applaud Apple for providing the middleware which makes this easy for researchers and secure for patients."
Bradley Merrill Thompson, general counsel for mHealth Regulatory Coalition, said, "Clinical trials are very expensive and heretofore have been conducted very inefficiently when it comes to data management." He added, "So this could be a fairly disruptive technology. Improving the administration of clinical trials is of very high public health importance" (Gold, Politico, 3/9).
Meanwhile, Apple on Monday also officially launched its smartwatch, which it intends to serve as a "comprehensive health and fitness companion," Health Data Management reports.
Apple Watch, which requires users to have an iPhone as its wireless foundation, tracks and monitors users' physical activity using:
The smartwatch also can send users reminders to be more active and display a report of individuals' weekly activity.
Apple Watch will be available in nine countries including the U.S., beginning April 24. The smartwatch will be available in two different sizes, 38 mm and 42 mm, and in three versions:
It was a pleasure to work with you, as you and your team made this process a more pleasant experience for our team and the participants.
I just want to tell you that I value people relations more than money. I remember how you were friendly and helpful not going against policies and contractual obligations at the same time, not using your power to make us feel stupid and small. It was a very rare and big experience for me. Really. I will always remember this.
The Usability People are all individuals that you can become friends with very easily. They have a lot of different interests and are a pleasure to work with. I was writing a PRD/MRD for a billing solution and worked with The Usability People in defining the user interface. They are receptive to ideas and are able to mold the user interface from an end-user's perspective. I really liked the idea of putting end-user photograph & short biography around the office to help understand the users