Studies incorporate genetic data to investigate postpartum depression, asthma and cardiovascular disease
CUPERTINO, California —March 21, 2016— Apple has announced the latest advancements to the ResearchKit open source software environment, which allow iPhone apps to collect genetic data and perform a series of medical tests that are normally done in the office physical. Medical researchers are embracing these new capabilities to develop specific studies on diseases and conditions that affect millions of people around the world, collecting more specific data from participants.
“The reception that ResearchKit has had has been fantastic. Virtually overnight, many ResearchKit studies have become the largest in history, and researchers are gaining insights and discoveries that were previously unthinkable, ”said Jeff Williams, Apple's COO. “Medical researchers around the world continue to use the iPhone to advance knowledge about complex diseases. In addition, thanks to the constant collaboration of the open source community, the possibilities of the iPhone in medical research are endless. "
ResearchKit turns iPhone into a powerful clinical research tool that helps clinicians, scientists, and other researchers collect more regularly and accurately data from participants from anywhere in the world using apps on iPhone. People who participate in these app-based medical studies can contribute more easily than ever by giving their consent through an interactive process and completing tasks and questionnaires comfortably, and can also choose how they want to share their data.
Because ResearchKit is an open source environment, any developer can design a research study for the iPhone. You can also take advantage of existing software code and share your tasks with the community to help other researchers get more out of the software environment. With the new open source module just released by 23andMe, researchers can incorporate genetic data into their studies in a simple and inexpensive way. This module allows study participants to easily provide their genetic data. These researchers are also collaborating with national mental health agencies to provide saliva sample kits to participants who have certain results on the questionnaires.
"There is still a lot to know about postpartum depression, and DNA may be the key to better understanding why some women have symptoms and others do not," said Samantha Meltzer-Brody, MD, MD, and director of the Perinatal Psychiatry Program of the UNC Center for Women's Mood Disorders. "Thanks to ResearchKit and the ability to enter genetic data, we will be able to work with a wide variety of women with postpartum depression geographically and demographically, and analyze the genomic signature of postpartum depression to find more effective treatments."
"Collecting this type of information will help researchers determine genomic markers for specific diseases and conditions," said Dr. Eric Schadt, Jean C. and James W. Crystal Professor of Genomic Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and director and founder of the Icahn Institute for Genomics and Mutiscale Biology. “In the case of asthma, for example, ResearchKit is allowing us to study patients more thoroughly than ever. In addition, thanks to the large amount of data that we can collect with the iPhone, we are discovering the influence on the disease of factors such as environmental, geographical and genetic, as well as its response to treatment ”.
ResearchKit studies incorporating genetic data:
- Postpartum Depression: PPD ACT is a new app-based study that will use genetic testing to better understand why some women suffer from postpartum depression, by analyzing the genetic makeup of those affected. The study, led by the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and the international “Postpartum Depression: Action Towards Causes and Treatment Consortium,” will provide participants with saliva sample kits provided by national mental health agencies.
- Cardiovascular disease: Developed by Stanford Medicine, the MyHeart Counts app will use genetic data from 23andMe clients to determine the predisposition to heart disease and the relationship between physical activity and lifestyle of participants and their cardiovascular health. The researchers hope that studying these relationships on a large scale will allow them to better understand how to care for heart health.
- Asthma: Designed to monitor a person's symptom patterns and identify possible causes of these symptoms, the Asthma Health app will use genetic data from 23andMe clients, helping researchers to discover better ways to personalize asthma treatment . Asthma Health has been designed by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and LifeMap Solutions.
Researchers continue to adapt ResearchKit and contribute to the software environment with new modules that bring doctor's office testing closer to iPhone apps. Among the most outstanding contributions are the study of tonal audiometry, the measurement of reaction time providing a known stimulus to a known reaction, the evaluation of the speed of information processing and working memory, the use of mathematical games of the Towers of Hanoi in cognitive studies and taking a timed walking test.
ResearchKit studies continue to expand around the world. They are already available in Germany, Australia, Austria, China, the United States, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. ResearchKit apps are available in the App Store for iPhone 5 and later, and for the latest generation of iPod touch.
