Thanks to Apple, 11,000 people signed up for a heart disease study in one day

Advertisement

Advertisement
apple smartwatch tim cook

AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez

Apple CEO Tim Cook introduces the new Apple Watch on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014, in Cupertino, Calif. Apple's new wearable device marks the company's first major entry in a new product category since the iPad's debut in 2010.

Tim Cook appeared on CNBC's Mad Money and talked to host Jim Kramer about how things have been going since its big Apple Watch press conference on Monday.

One thing he said jumped out: the new app software Apple released, called ResearchKit, to revolutionize the medical research industry seems to be revolutionizing that industry already.

In ResearchKit's first 24 hours, it helped Stanford University find 11,000 participants for a heart disease study. Cook explained:

Complimentary Tech Event
Transform talent with learning that works
Capability development is critical for businesses who want to push the envelope of innovation.Discover how business leaders are strategizing around building talent capabilities and empowering employee transformation.Know More

It's really incredible ... in the first 24 hours of research kit we've had 11,000 people sign up for a study in cardiovascular disease through Stanford University's app. And, to put that in perspective-- Stanford has told us that it would have taken normally 50 medical centers an entire year to sign up that many participants. So, this is-- research kit is an absolute game changer.

With ResearchKit, Apple has been working with researchers across the world to develop new applications that can tap into the kind of features used by Healthkit, to do medical research.

Advertisement

apple watch event researchkit

Screenshot

A ResearchKit app

Apple helped build the first five ResearchKit apps with various companies to target Parkinson's, diabetes, asthma, breast cancer, and cardiovascular disease. iOS users can opt out of participating in studies and dictate what data they want to share (and Apple says it won't see any of that data).

But the goal was to help researchers more easily find participants for studies, and from Day 1, looks like that will be mission accomplished.

Here's the full interview: