The new CareKit iOS of Apple went live yesterday, enabling app developers to make integrated software that assists doctors and patients to enhance the tracking and management of medical conditions.
The tech giant announced the platform's roll out last month. It is designed so that developers won't find any difficulty in building health apps since it offers several integrations including monitoring of medical symptoms, keeping tabs on medication schedules, and sending images of injuries.
In addition, Carekit also provides two-way benefits since it helps doctors monitor their patients and also enables patients to observe their improvements over time.
The platform is an open source tool with some similarities to Apple's ResearchKit in certain functions, but on a smaller scale. Rather than providing nationwide medical studies, this platform is made to facilitate the secure gathering of user health data, either for sharing with medical professionals or just for personal use.
TechCrunch, in a report said that the launch is initially limited to just four apps that targeted iPhone users. These four include diabetes monitoring app One Drop, maternity app Glow Baby, depression medication tracker Start and fertility tracker Glow Nurture.
Starting on Friday, CareKit will also be available on GitHub, according to the Apple.
The modules of CareKit are interactive therefore they can be configured so that the user can manage wellness tasks according to his needs. Thus, the user will be able to perform tasks such as exercise and medication scheduling.
The platform also provides a Progress Card module which includes a Symptom and Measurement tracker to enable the user to log physical metrics such as weight and heart rate. There is a possibility that this feature can also be integrated in Apple Watch.
There is also the Connect module which allows the user to share his health data with his medical provider and his family members. This data can be viewed together with Progress Card data which the Insight Dashboard module offers.
