Following on from HealthKit and ResearchKit, Apple has today launched its third medical framework, CareKit. First announced last month, CareKit allows users to collect medical data that can be shared with physicians and other carers to provide an accurate log of symptoms and signs to assist with diagnosis and treatment.
Four CareKit apps are available as of today …
The more you know about your health, the better you can look after it. With the right tools, you can play an active role in managing your own health. That’s why we created CareKit — an open source software framework enabling developers to build apps that help you manage your medical conditions. Rather than relying solely on doctor visits, you’ll be able to regularly track your symptoms and medications, and even share the information with your care team for a bigger — and better — picture of your health.
Glow Nurture is a pregnancy tracker that allows an expectant mother to log progress and obtain information on what to expect when. The app is free, but a subscription is required to unlock full functionality.
Glow Baby takes over from Nurture when the baby is born, tracking everything from feed schedules to growth charts, and is likewise a freemium app.
One Drop is a diabetes management app that provides one-touch logging of glucose, food, meds and activity. It also syncs data from Bluetooth-enabled handheld blood glucose monitors, and provides reminders when meds are due. It’s a free app, with Apple Watch support.
Start is a depression-management app which provides testing and progress-tracking to help determine the effectiveness of meds. It also provides meds reminders and side-effect logging. The app is free.
FastCompany reports that developers get access to four modules, and can choose for themselves which ones they want to use.
CareKit also integrates with hospital records systems like Epic and Cerner.
The software framework […] modules were designed by Apple’s team with the following use-cases in mind: administering a care plan, measuring symptoms, laying out insights via a dashboard to help judge whether treatments are working, and sharing health reports.
