It has long been proven that the Cupertino people want to improve our health. Apple discovered how bad everything related to health was in the last years of Steve Jobs's life. That took them by surprise, that is, they had not considered launching products that would improve our health until after facing the health problems of Jobs but, a few years after his death, they launched several software products, such as ResearchKit, and hardware, like the Apple Watch.
The Great Britain company GlaxoSmithKline has had the pleasure of becoming the first pharmacist to use the ResearchKit platform for clinical research. What GSK is researching is related to the most common symptoms experienced by people with rheumatoid arthritis. The study will be carried out using the free GKS PARADE application. application that at the time of writing is only available in the American App Store.
GKS PARADE, the first application that uses ResearchKit reaches the App Store
GKS PARADE will tests to observe the mobility of 300 participants over three months, time during which the application will record both emotional and physical symptoms. To create standard measurements, the application will ask users to perform specific wrist exercises.
With the data collected, GKS intends to design new studies to help develop more effective drugs. With other ResearchKit studies, study participants will be rewarded with «access to a dashboard that will contain your personal data in the study that they can share with their healthcare providers to support conversations about treatment plans«.
The results of this study will be analyzed in depth by other health professionals. Many of these professionals are interested in whether ResearchKit can help save the millions of dollars spent doing research today.