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Apple Senior Vice President of Operations Jeff Williams announces ResearchKit on stage during an Apple special event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on March 9, 2015 in San Francisco, California.
Basically, Apple built tools into the iPhone which allow researchers to build sophisticated medical apps. These apps use the iPhone's suite of sensors to monitor location, heart rate, and other factors.
Its potential is powerful when you think about it: ResearchKit allows doctors and researchers to collect more data from more patients than ever before, which could lead to findings that were impossible before doctors could collect study data daily through a smartphone.
Doctors have embraced the platform and created apps that track and study autism, concussions, heart disease, epilepsy, and other health problems. Here's a look at a few amazing ResearchKit apps developed so far: