Less than 24 hours after Apple's research tool ResearchKit was announced, 11,000 people had signed up for a cardiovascular study being conducted at Stanford (Calif.) University.
Recruiting participants has historically been a barrier to conducting research studies, so the burst in applications and ease of communication through ResearchKit may be a boon for medical researchers. However, other researchers warn that because the software is so new, there may be flaws in its data collection or the consent forms may not be clear, according to Bloomberg Business.
Demographics may also be skewed — the only participants who can sign up are those with iPhones, which may tend to be more educated and affluent than the average Android user. Results may also be skewed by a participant handing his or her phone to someone else. Other patients have been able to sign up for studies on disesas they do not have, according to the report.
The Parkinson's app, an application developed for the iPhone through the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research and nonprofit Sage Bionetworks, has also seen a burst in enrollment. The app has 5,589 consenting users so far, significantly more than a traditional trial was able to recruit. The ease of recruitment and management may also reduce the cost of trials — one traditional study of Parkinson's included 800 individuals and cost approximately $60 million, according to the report.