ResearchKit Now Available for iPad - MacRumors
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ResearchKit Now Available for iPad

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ResearchKit iconApple has released an updated version of ResearchKit with iPad support and several other new features for developers. ResearchKit 1.1 includes improved slider support, new active tasks, bug fixes, style improvements and more, with some of the changes briefly discussed during Apple's recent What's New in Cocoa Touch session at WWDC this week. The full changelog is listed below.

Today we're happy to announce that we've tagged a new stable release of ResearchKit, version 1.1. This new version includes multiple significant contributions:

  • Audiometry active task (Shazino SAS)

  • Reaction time active task (James Cox)

  • Navigable Ordered Task (Ricardo Sánchez-Sáez)

  • iPad support (Ricardo Sánchez-Sáez, Bruce Duncan, and others)

  • Image Capture step (Bruce Duncan)

  • Improved slider support (various contributors)

  • Plus various bug fixes and style improvements

    Over the past few weeks these changes have had additional review for accessibility, and have been localized to all the languages iOS supports.

  • ResearchKit is a software framework that enables researchers and developers to create apps for iOS users to participate in medical studies. Given that ResearchKit is open source, many of the changes made in the latest version were contributed by third-party developers not employed by Apple. A commit list for the ResearchKit 1.1 update is available for developers on GitHub.

    (Thanks, Ricardo!)

    Top Rated Comments

    rtonev Avatar
    141 months ago
    Bruce for someone with no app development experience whatsever - how do I get started with making Research Kit surveys for example ? And is there any developers forum specifically for Research Kit ?
    Stanford has a nice free iTunes course for iOS App Development. You can check that one out. Lynda.com also has nice videos. After you get familiar with apple stuff, you can take a look at Apple's github page for research kit:

    https://github.com/researchkit/researchkit

    They have examples there, including how to make surveys.
    Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
    141 months ago
    @soundwave1337: I don't think Apple has plans to bring HealthKit nor the Health app to iPad. HealthKit is an optional component in ResearchKit: when coding an app that uses ResearchKit, on iPad you can't use the ResearchKit capabilities.

    I'm not sure if any of the five current ResearchKit apps that Joe mentioned will be natively brought to iPad. My guess is that not for now.
    Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
    Joe Rossignol Avatar
    141 months ago
    Does that mean that Health app is coming to iPad?
    More likely ResearchKit-based apps for iPad such as Asthma Health ('http://appshopper.com/medical/asthma-health-by-mount-sinai'), mPower ('http://appshopper.com/medical/parkinson-mpower-study-app'), GlucoSuccess ('http://appshopper.com/medical/glucosuccess'), Share the Journey ('http://appshopper.com/medical/share-the-journey') and MyHeart Counts ('http://appshopper.com/medical/myheart-counts'). They're all limited to iPhone right now.
    Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
    141 months ago
    @krazifour: Not really. Some traditional in-person medical studies do pay volunteers, but this is not the case with the current ResearchKit app-based studies. I don't expect that to happen with future studies either.

    Why do you imply that?
    Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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