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Cambridge MedChem Consulting

ResearchKit

An article on BuzzFeed suggests that Pharma companies are investigating the use of ResearchKit in clinical trial studies.

ResearchKit is an open source framework introduced by Apple that allows researchers and developers to create powerful apps for medical research. Easily create visual consent flows, real-time dynamic active tasks, and surveys using a variety of customizable modules that you can build upon and share with the community. And since ResearchKit works seamlessly with HealthKit, researchers can access even more relevant data for their studies — like daily step counts, calorie use, and heart rate

GlaxoSmithKline apparently is currently working on integrating (ResearchKit) into clinical trials and planning to start in coming months, whilst Purdue Pharma are in the early stages of exploring whether Apple’s new tool for research data collection can be used as part of its own drug R&D efforts.

So far, ResearchKit apps are being led by academic medical centers like the University of California, San Francisco, and nonprofits like Sage Bionetworks and the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. LifeMap Solutions, a company that develops mobile health apps, helped create the asthma app in partnership with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The first ResearchKit apps signed up more than 75,000 participants in just the first few months