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Apple launches CareKit app platform to help you track your health

CareKit was introduced last month at Apple’s March live event. It officially launched today with four iPhone apps, Glow Nurture, Glow Baby, Start and One Drop. The first two apps help with pregnancy and the first year of caring for a baby. Start aims to tackle depression and One Drop is a diabetes tracker.
CareKit lets a smartphone act as an intermediary between a patient and their doctor. Using anonymised data and secure transfers, the user of a CareKit app can track their medication, record the progress of their treatment and connect with healthcare professionals if required. Doctors are able to remotely monitor progress and intervene if needed.
CareKit follows Apple’s previous efforts in the healthcare sector, HealthKit and ResearchKit. CareKit is closely linked to ResearchKit, a framework designed to help medical researchers conduct large-scale surveys.
ResearchKit has already seen some success, hosting the largest study of Parkinson’s disease in history involving over 10,000 participants. The researchers used an iPhone app to better understand the disease, using hardware features like the gyroscope to measure participant dexterity, balance, gait and memory.
CareKit is a step beyond ResearchKit. It is aimed at personal care rather than medical research, a framework that developers can use to create apps for individuals to manage their own healthcare with.
“With the right tools, you can play an active role in managing your own health,” said Apple. “That’s why we created CareKit — an open source software framework enabling developers to build apps that help you manage your medical conditions. Rather than relying solely on doctor visits, you’ll be able to regularly track your symptoms and medications, and even share the information with your care team for a bigger — and better — picture of your health.”
Apple is aware of the potential privacy issues that could impact CareKit. All three app developers launching CareKit apps today fully anonymise user data, storing any sensitive files on the patient’s phone. Apple is enforcing measures to ensure all future apps take a similar approach, setting out strict guidelines on what CareKit apps do with the data they collect.
It is forbidden to submit a CareKit app to the App Store that shares user data with third party marketers or advertisers. Every app must provide a detailed privacy policy explaining what data it collects, where it is stored and how.
Apple is also addressing concerns that apps could provide incorrect medical advice or even put a patient’s health at greater risk. CareKit apps that deliver a diagnosis or treatment method that isn’t inline with the FDA’s standards will be rejected from the App Store.
CareKit is now available to developers worldwide, aiming to inspire a new generation of personal care apps to let people take control of their health. Apple is building an increasingly strong health portfolio, ranging from the Apple Watch’s fitness features to the assistance ResearchKit provides to medical studies. The first CareKit apps are available for download now.

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