Apple’s CareKit Officially Available Today – First Apps “Coming Soon”

Last month Apple unveiled the CareKit framework in an effort to expand its Health initiative. CareKit essentially “expands” another framework called ResearchKit, which helps medical researchers collect data related to medicine and healthcare.

Both frameworks are open-source, and CareKit, as spotted by Fast Company, has hit GitHub this morning. (The dedicated microsite says CareKit will be available to developers worldwide this spring.)

The CareKit framework has been under wraps since Apple unveiled it during the iPhone SE event last month, so little was known about the effort. As it turns out, the company has been granted early access to three startups: One Drop, Glow, and Iodine.

“We had about a month to play with CareKit,” says Iodine founder and CEO Thomas Goetz. “It has been especially helpful for us to slot in important context in a way that makes sense to patients, like our trend data on what they can expect from an antidepressant.”

The first of these is working on an app for diabetes management, Glow on reproductive health apps, and Iodine is developing a medication management app for people with depression. Also, the Cleveland Clinic is building an app for patients with respiratory problems such as asthma. The app will be available soon.

The next major step would be a deep and effective integration with clinician workflow, which is essential for the success of these apps. Another important condition for the success of the CareKit framework is that it should integrate with major electronic health records such as Epic Systems and Cerner to make it easier for doctors to review reports within a patient’s medical records.