This week, as part of the latest trends toward patient-managed medical care, Apple unveiled its new CareKit software framework, which will let developers create new ways for people to manage their health conditions. It's design is much like Apple's ResearchKit, the platform that lets researchers conduct studies through apps made available in the App Store. The new software is slated to ship in April.

“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,” Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer said in a statement. “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 was introduced by Williams during the company's "Loop you in" event earlier this week. He demonstrated at the event an app developed by Sage Bionetworks that lets Parkinson’s patients track drug efficacy and exercise regimens, according to the Verge.
“The biggest thing we’re likely to get with these apps is scale,” neuroscientist James Beck, vice-president for scientific affairs at the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation in New York City, told Nature. For example, mPower, a ResearchKit app that is aimed at people with Parkinson’s disease, has now signed up over 6,800 people, triple the size of the next largest Parkinson’s study.

An example of the big-data research possible through these apps is a recent application of the software for asthma. Dr. Yvonne Chan, director of digital health at the Icahn Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology at Mount Sinai in New York City, looked last year at the impact on asthmatics of wildfires in Washington state. Thanks to analysis of data from the Asthma Health iPhone app, she could show that fires led to flare-ups of asthma symptoms.

“In the past, stuff like this was just logistically impossible to do,” Chan told Nature. “It opens up a brand-new area of research.”

CareKit will come with four basic modules for developers to build on, including:

1. Care Card, which lets people track their individual care plans and action items, with some activities tracked automatically via sensors in the Apple Watch or iPhone;

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