ResearchKit and the Future of Healthcare

Apple landed a pretty big bombshell today with the announcement of ResearchKit. And probably the biggest part of the announcement was this:

Yes, ResearchKit is fully open source. Why is that important? Because it means that this technology will eventually be available on any platform. Yup, including Android. And Windows. And whatever else comes in the future.

And it also means that integration between ResearchKit and other emerging healthcare technologies will be possible, including the SMART on FHIR platform, which is leading the way to modernize healthcare interoperability.

Given Apple's commitment to privacy, I have no doubt that the healthcare industry will quickly adopt this new platform, as evidenced by the high-quality institutions already participating.

As I've mentioned previously, the Learning Health System represents the vision of a world in which we are constantly learning from a stream of high-quality data, using that data to quickly make even better decisions, even at the point of care. ResearchKit will help us reach that goal even more quickly, possibly even before the 10-year goal as set forth by the ONC.

Let's get started!