Why Apple�s ResearchKit signals a Golden Age forhealth care

In a surprise announcement recently, Apple Inc. preceded the debut of its new line of connectedwatches by unveiling ResearchKit, a medical research platform that has demonstrated its powerfulpotential with the first five applications. The open-source ResearchKit and evolving HealthKitpromise new ways for apps and researchers to gather sensor and health data that will enable fasterclinical insights at lower cost.

Digital health and mobile health platforms have been emerging for a number of years, primarily inconsumer health, but few with clinical rigor or clearance from the U.S. Food and DrugAdministration. As in other product categories, Apple has used thoughtful design and its marketstrength to create a powerful new platform that lowers the barriers to creating apps. ResearchKitpromises to benefit researchers, physicians and patients across a spectrum of diseases, from rarediseases to widespread chronic diseases that make up the majority of healthcare costs.

Apple's new platform will amplify a broad set of new opportunities we are calling "Digiceuticals" --where software, sensors and apps are standalone treatments for disease and integrated intocomprehensive care plans alongside drugs and medical devices. Leading academic groups havealready demonstrated that digital tools can improve the effectiveness of drugs and health behaviorchange. Health platform investments by Apple AAPL , Google GOOG and Samsung KRX arelowering the barriers for reaching the right patient, time and place with engaging messagingcustomized for each patient.

Rather than threatening to crush the innovators that have blazed the trail in front of previous Applereleases, ResearchKit and HealthKit promise to amplify the efforts of researchers and startups indigital health. One example is Ginger.io., a pioneering MIT venture enabling large scale clinicaltrials on smartphones. CEO and founder Anmol Madan is expecting his company to use ResearchKitacross many clinical trials. And within the first 24 hours of launching, Stanford University's

cardiovascular research app, which promises to accelerate clinical insights and lower the costs ofresearch, received over 11,000 downloads.

The tremendous enthusiasm for ResearchKit is slightly tempered by concerns from the healthcarecommunity around data privacy, research ethics, and questions around generalizability of itsfindings. In regards to external validity, it remains to be seen that of the more than 10,000 subjectsthat have signed up for the MyHeartCounts app, how many fit into the target demographic for suchan app. For example, how many of them are middle-to-older age adults (i.e. above 45 years of age)with at least one risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

Similarly, Apple claims that it "will not see your data," but an independent review of its data storage,privacy, and anonymization methods and policies may provide more reassurance to participants aswell as regulatory agencies. Finally, research ethicists are appropriately concerned about thevalidity of study eligibility criteria, as there is potential for recruiting minors and non-US citizensinto the study with limited checks and balances against fraud and impersonation.

Last year a breakout year for digital health investments, as over $4 billion went into health carestartups -- that's more than the previous three combined years. This is the most exciting time inhistory for health technology to improve lives around the world, and the smartphone is a coreenabler for health communication, education, monitoring, and telemedicine. New technologies andservices are extending this impact into diagnosis and simple therapeutic interventions. In an era ofdwindling National Institute of Health funding, academic medical research is limited to studiessponsored by pharmaceutical companies with millions of dollars to spend on gathering data.

For those of us active in creating and investing across the future of digital health, 2015 presents aplethora of opportunities to fundamentally change the business models and experiences ofhealthcare globally. The complexities of proving healthcare efficacy, value, and adoption still existbut the Golden Age of Digiceuticals is now accelerating.

Zen Chu is a Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management and runs Accelerated MedicalVentures, partnering with physicians in Boston and China to found and fund digital healthcompanies. Maulik Majmudar is Chief Clinical Officer for Quanttus, Inc. and a cardiologist at theMassachusetts General Hospital, where he also serves as associate director of the MGH HealthTransformation Lab.

http://fortune.com/2015/03/27/why-apples-researchkit-signals-a-golden-age-for-health-care/