--- title: Apple ResearchKit: Health Experts Weigh In description: "There are some things you can't figure out by someone tapping into an iPhone” canonical: https://time.com/3738429/apple-health-app-researchkit/ author: Markham Heid article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-10T20:53:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:45:04.350Z article:section: Health og:title: How Apple’s New Health App Could Be Used—Or Abused og:description: "There are some things you can't figure out by someone tapping into an iPhone” og:url: https://time.com/3738429/apple-health-app-researchkit/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt85969efc94d02cfc/6987831306f2c12fd03345eb/apple-health.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5184 og:image:height: 2916 og:image:alt: Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks on stage during an Apple special event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on March 9, 2015 in San Francisco. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Apple’s New Health App Could Be Used—Or Abused twitter:description: "There are some things you can't figure out by someone tapping into an iPhone” twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt85969efc94d02cfc/6987831306f2c12fd03345eb/apple-health.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Apple’s New Health App Could Be Used — or Abused > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. by [Markham Heid](https://time.com/author/markham-heid/) ## Markham Heid Markham Heid is a contributor at TIME. He is the author of The Habit Trap, due out in early 2027. Mar 10, 2015 8:53 PM UTC  Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks on stage during an Apple special event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on March 9, 2015 in San Francisco. Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks on stage during an Apple special event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on March 9, 2015 in San Francisco. Stephen Lam—Getty Images by [Markham Heid](https://time.com/author/markham-heid/) ## Markham Heid Markham Heid is a contributor at TIME. He is the author of The Habit Trap, due out in early 2027. Mar 10, 2015 8:53 PM UTC The biggest news at [Monday’s Apple event](http://time.com/3737599/new-apple-watch-details/) was the launch of the much anticipated Apple Watch. But the company also announced a new type of software — ResearchKit — that it says will help medical researchers collect health data directly from patients via their various iDevices. ResearchKit is a software “framework” that hospitals and other health care organizations can use to create diagnostic applications, said Jeff Williams, Apple’s senior VP of operations, at the watch event. An example: Williams demonstrated one app called mPower, designed to measure hand and voice tremors related to Parkinson’s disease. “With the use of this technology, we feel there’s an unprecedented opportunity to gain insight into what it’s like to live with Parkinson’s 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” says Dr. Todd Sherer, CEO of the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. The foundation collaborated with Sage Bionetworks to help develop the Parkinson’s app featured at Apple’s event. Fox’s foundation has also announced a new data-collection initiative, Fox Insight, which Sherer says his organization hopes to soon pair with the mPower app. Sherer said identifying qualified patients for clinical trials and other research efforts is another potential benefit of this new technology. “Getting people to participate in clinic-based trials is a challenge for many disease researchers, including those studying Parkinson’s,” he says. Apple’s Williams mentioned other applications — now available — that can help spot symptoms of diabetes, heart disease and asthma. Williams said these apps were developed with the help of Massachusetts General Hospital, Stanford University, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and other equally august health care organizations. ### Here's What the Newest Apple Watch Apps Look Like and Can Do  Request a ride on Uber. Apple  Be alerted when you receive a notification with a gentle tap by the Taptic Engine. Apple  Scroll through and like images on Instagram. Apple  Of course, check the time Apple  Check into your hotel and unlock your room using the SPG app. Apple  Pull your boarding pass from Passbook when you’re near the airport. Apple  Purchase items using Apple Pay. Apple  Accept or decline phone calls. Apple  Get timely activity reminders and progress updates throughout the day. Apple  Raise your wrist and say “Hey Siri” to do all kinds of things with Apple Watch. Apple  Receive your iPhone notifications. Apple  Track your fitness using the Workout app. Apple  Track your activity using the Workout app. Apple  Get quick summaries of the information you use most using Glances, by swiping up. Apple  Control your music using Now Playing. Apple  In addition to timekeeping, communications, and health and fitness, Apple Watch lets you do so much more. Apple Apple’s Williams was adamant that any health information you share through ResearchKit will remain confidential. “You choose what studies you want to join, you are in control of what information you provide to which apps,” states information appearing on the Apple site. While helping health care providers and researchers collect data and recruit qualified participants could lead to meaningful research advancements, some see reasons to be wary. “Two things concern me,” says Dr. David Ross Camidge, director of the Thoracic Oncology Clinical Program at the University of Colorado Cancer Center. For starters, big-name institutions may have more money and resources to develop these sorts of diagnostic apps, Camidge says. He worries patients may be directed away from the most-relevant or appropriate clinical trials to those that have the most funding behind them. “I certainly don’t know if that will be the case, but there seems like room for potential bias and commercialization,” he says. Also, people tend to be lousy at self-reporting health-related information, Camidge says. A poorly designed app may generate misleading or contradictory patient data that could hinder instead of help the forward progress of some medical research. “I’m sure there are ways it will be very useful,” he adds. But he adds that some things are not so simplistic, cautioning that for conditions like cancer, Alzheimer’s and multiple sclerosis, he says, “There are some things you can’t figure out by someone tapping into an iPhone.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3738429/apple-health-app-researchkit/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3738429/apple-health-app-researchkit/"},"headline":"How Apple’s New Health App Could Be Used — or Abused","datePublished":"2015-03-10T20:53:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:45:04.350Z","description":"\"There are some things you can't figure out by someone tapping into an iPhone”","url":"https://time.com/3738429/apple-health-app-researchkit/","keywords":["Apple","Tech","big data","health","Wearable Tech"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt85969efc94d02cfc/6987831306f2c12fd03345eb/apple-health.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Markham Heid","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/markham-heid/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt85969efc94d02cfc/6987831306f2c12fd03345eb/apple-health.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks on stage during an Apple special event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on March 9, 2015 in San Francisco.","caption":"Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks on stage during an Apple special event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on March 9, 2015 in San Francisco.","creditText":"Stephen Lam—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/apple/","name":"Apple"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3738429/apple-health-app-researchkit/","name":"How Apple’s New Health App Could Be Used — or Abused"}}]}] ```