Apple teams up with GlaxoSmithKline for ResearchKit project

(ShareCast News) - Apple has stepped up its foray into the health technology world, teaming up with British firm GlaxoSmithKline for a project using ResearchKit, a medical platform for studies and clinical trials.The two companies will gather data from patients using an iOS app powered by ResearchKit.The use of the app is likely to significantly reduce costs for GlaxoSmithKline, and could propel Apple into being a major force in the health technology sector.Rob DiCicco, vice president of GSK's Clinical Pharmacology Sciences and Study Operations, said the study makes the processes much faster, decreasing costs by considerable amounts. "Certainly you've also taken out the site costs, and the costs of having nurses and physicians explaining the studies to them and recording information," Bloomberg reported him saying."Our goal is to engage with patients in a new way that integrates the research into their daily lives versus the traditional model that requires patients to travel to their doctors' offices," DiCicco said in a statement. "By making research as easy and accessible as possible for patients, we have the potential to disrupt the model for how we conduct research in the future and ultimately improve patient health."Apple has taken strides to be considered as a health and fitness accessory through its Apple Watch and other technologies, by including pedometers and heart rate monitors on its software."Apple is saying 'let's make it easier for you to use our products so that consumers can become more dependent on them,'" said Yuri Teshler, an analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy."Eventually you're going to see payers rewarding you for managing your fitness and Apple is going to be in the business of delivering information that payers need."