Apple launches CareKit to help build and develop medical apps
There are a lot mobile applications out there to help people monitor their health, track their daily activities, and set exercise reminders. But nearly three years ago when entrepreneur Jeff Dachis was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, he couldn’t find any software to truly help him adjust to the new lifestyle that his condition requires.
Dachis says that medical apps are usually developed by people who are driven by fear in a lot of ways and have no real sense of user experience. He says that data driven diseases, like diabetes, need an app that could hold all the necessary information in just one place.
His frustrations allowed him to develop OneDrop which is an app that allows diabetics to manage their health by tracking data from their glucose meters, logging the number of carbohydrates in their meals, and offering insulin shot reminders.
Now, technology firm Apple is hoping to improve health apps like One Drop by offering developers new tools for building health apps. The company just rolled out CareKit, which gives app makers a suite of new tools for creating health software.
CareKit has four central features called modules. There’s the Care Card, which helps users track how often they take medication or complete physical therapy routines; a symptom-tracking tool that can be used to monitor fevers and other ailments; a dashboard for comparing symptoms against recorded health metrics; and a function for sharing that information with doctors, caregivers, or family members.
CareKit features will appear immediately in some apps, including One Drop, mental health app Start, and pregnancy app Glow Nurture. One Drop, for example, will now include heart-shaped meters that fill up while a user completes their daily goals, which may include logging the right amount of carbohydrates according to their diet and taking the correct dosage of medication.
Although the new tools may seem minor to some, Apple is hoping CareKit will provide a way for patients to keep a closer eye on their own health, potentially allowing them to more quickly address any issues as they come up. According to Dr. Eric Topol, cardiologist and director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute, if you have chronic medical conditions like heart rhythm failure, monitoring tools like these are important since the condition’s management could be significant in avoiding hospitalizations.
Some of CareKit’s functionality isn’t groundbreaking. Smartphone owners can already jot down their symptoms when they’re not feeling well, or set reminders to take medication on nearly any note-taking or alarm app.But CareKit could help tie disparate functions together, giving people a more comprehensive view of their well-being. It could also empower healthcare organizations with limited technical resources to create helpful apps.Dachis notes that thousands of organizations will now be able to quickly put together an elegant and sophisticated medical app.
CareKit’s launch comes as many software startups seek to make life easier for patients. Apple also already offers ResearchKit, which enables iPhone owners to participate in medical studies, and HealthKit, which allows health apps to share data with one another with the user’s permission.
Topol says CareKit is an indication that health apps are moving in the right direction.
Source: Time
Category: Features, Technology & Devices
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