In addition to putting the research app on the App Store, Krauss said that his team is reaching out to epilepsy support groups to find study participants.
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Developers for these types of privileged applications are approved and preregistered by Apple, and have so far included medical research institutions only. And now you can do so if a researcher wants to work with you and you have an Apple device. Duke researchers are also looking to launch the app in other regions, including China, South America, North America and South Africa.
Parents and children will interact with questionnaires and videos on the app and then receive a few feedback, such as how to deal with tantrums if that’s an issue, or what the child’s apparent risk for autism might be. Oregon Health and Sciences has launched a mole tracking ResearchKit study.
It is definitely refreshing to see the iPhone being used for something other than Candy Crush Saga, and I’m excited to learn what researchers are able to do using iOS devices and Apple Watch. Their app, the EpiWatch, will use and test the wearable sensors on the Apple Watch to see if they can predict and detect seizures. But the app is still useful for the patients who are participating in the study. It’s a heartening and exciting thought, though for now, ResearchKit studies are still in their infancy and the value of data they compile is unknown. It not only seems to be the case, the medical researchers behind these apps, in a few cases, say that is one of the longterm outcomes they hope for as part of their endeavor.
When users download EpiWatch, they’ll be asked to read information about the study and give a signature to show informed consent; participants must be 16 or older and have both an Apple Watch and an iPhone, Crone said. The app makes use of numerous Apple Watch sensors-including the accelerometer, which detects movements, and the gyroscope, which determines orientation in space-to measure and record movements and falls during seizures.
With hundreds of millions of iPhones and iPads in use around the world, app-based health studies such as this enable researchers to measure more diverse patient populations faster and more affordably, said Ricky Bloomfield, M.D., director of mobile technology strategy for Duke Medicine.
Now, ResearchKit adds autism, melanoma and epilepsy apps to upend the medical community’s efforts and provide numerous benefits to patients.
The app designers help potential participants understand the time commitments required for each segment of the app by listing the number of questions a survey will have up front or how long each video exercise will last.
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A second app, MoleMapper is integrated on ResearchKit with the help of Oregon Health and Science University. “10 to 15 percent of them have Parkinson’s, so in the span of six months this is one of the largest clinical studies of Parkinson’s ever conducted”, he told ZDNet. The app tracks medication intake, seizure duration, and other factors.
