Transcript
[ Crowd Sounds ]
[ Applause ]
>> Hello. Good evening,
everyone.
My name is Samantha Mravca.
And I am really excited to share
with all of you, today, what's
new in ResearchKit and CareKit.
So, to start, as many of you
know, ResearchKit is an
opensource framework that we
released in 2015.
And it was designed to tackle
common challenges in research,
such as limited participation
and infrequent data, by enabling
both developers and researchers
to create and execute large
scale studies, using our iOS
devices.
After the launch of ResearchKit,
our team focused their energy on
a more patient centric approach
to health.
Which eventually led to the
creation of ResearchKit's sister
framework, CareKit.
CareKit was released in 2016 and
it was designed to empower
patients by enabling them to
take a more active role in their
own care.
And so, although these
frameworks were built with
different audiences in mind,
they truly work together.
Not only as sister frameworks,
but they were built to sit
beautifully on top of Apple's
HealthKit framework.
That way, they can leverage and
share the rich health data from
other third-party apps and
devices.
And so, by combining the power
of all three, you can create a
truly elevated experience for
your end user.
So, even just since last WWDC,
we've seen lots more ResearchKit
and CareKit apps pop up all over
the globe.
And so, quickly, before we jump
into the rest of the talk, let's
just take a look at some of
these examples.
So, to start, in the U.K.
MyAsthma is a ResearchKit app
that helps patients better
understand their asthma
triggers, as well as important
information about their
surrounding environment.
Over in Japan, Nestle Skin
Health recently released their
ResearchKit app to study common
skin conditions by using
accelerometer data from the
watch to detect scratching
during sleep.
And down in Australia, Professor
Timothy Skinner and his team
have developed a CareKit app
emojifit Diabetes, which makes
great use of emojis to convey
often overwhelming and confusing
medical information to patients
trying to manage their
condition.
And lastly, back in the U.S.,
PPD Act is a ResearchKit app
from the researchers at UNC
Chapel Hill that is aimed to
better understand the genetic
basis of postpartum depression.
And Sharp Healthcare is working
on their CareKit app to help
their patients post eye surgery.
That way they can stick to their
recovery plans in those crucial
weeks immediately following
their surgery.
And so, these are just some of
the examples of the amazing
ResearchKit and CareKit apps
that we have seen launched over
the last few years.
And we are so excited to keep
seeing more.
But with that, let's go ahead
and jump into the rest of our
talk.
And we can start off by going
over the new features in both of
the CareKit and ResearchKit
frameworks.
After that, I'll invite up my
coworker, Srinath, who will
share a new CareKit prototyping
tool with all of you.
And then, once he's done, I'll
jump back up onstage and we can
talk about the community and our
collaboration together.
So, let's start with
ResearchKit, our new updates and
features.
And the first update we have for
you is a small but powerful
change, that we made to the Tone
Audiometry task.
As many of you know, this Tone
Audiometry active test is a
hearing test.
During which users are asked to
wear headphones and listen to a
series of different audio
frequencies, that can be
delivered to either the left or
right ear.
As users hear these frequencies,
they will progressively increase
in volume until the user taps a
button to indicate that they've
heard the sound.
And in the old version, we just
had one button for them to tap.
But now, we are including both a
left and right button.
That way, not only can you
indicate when you've heard the
tone, but you can also specify
which ear you've heard it in.
So, next we have a brand new
active test developed by one of
our own Apple engineers, the
Stroop Test.
This test helps measure
selective attention by asking
participants to focus their
attention on one stimulus, while
ignoring another.
So, during this test, users will
see two possible combinations of
text and tint appear on the
screen in front of them.
And these can be either
concordant or discordant.
And you can see on the screen
here, that we must ignore the
text and instead, select the
button that reflects the tint
color that we see displayed.
As users continue to complete
these attempts, a pass or fail
will be recorded for each
attempt, as well as the time to
complete the test.
So, next we have a contribution
from the community.
And I'd like to thank Faraz
Hussain, who is one of the By
Effect app developers from the
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
ResearchKit Mood Challenge.
He has contributed the Trail
Making Test, which is a
neuropsychological test of
visual attention and task
switching.
And during this test, users must
connect a series of labeled
circles, as you see here, on the
screen, from one A, two B, three
C, and so on.
And then, the time to complete
this test will be recorded.
And the last active task we have
is the new Range of Motion
Active Task.
And a big thanks goes to Doctor
Raj Karia, John Guydo, and
Darren Levy for contributing the
Range of Motion Active Task.
This lets you measure both
flexed and extended positions.
And from the beginning, users
will be asked to place their
device in the proper location.
And then, using a touch anywhere
active task, they can simply tap
the screen to indicate that
they're ready to proceed with
the rest of the steps.
And so, as they continue to
follow the steps in this test,
recordings from both the
accelerometer and the gyroscope
will be recorded.
And what's even more, is not
only did they contribute this
for the shoulder.
But they contributed another
version with the company assets
for the knee, as well.
And so, lastly, I'd like to
highlight a new video
instruction step for
ResearchKit.
This was contributed by Oliver
Shcaefer.
So, thank you, Oliver.
And this step makes it really
easy, now, for you to display
video content within your apps,
from either a remote or local
source.
And so, with that, you have the
latest updates and features to
ResearchKit, including several
contributions from the
community.
And additionally, we will also,
now be assigning a visual object
identifier to the ResearchKit
repository.
That way, as you all bring the
results of these studies to the
academic community, you can now
reference the framework using
this unique string.
So, with that, I would like to
go ahead and jump into CareKit.
So, as you know it today,
CareKit consists of four core
modules.
A Care Card, a Symptom Tracker,
an Insights module, as well as a
Connect module.
And so, today, the Care Card
lets patients view all of their
daily interventions.
These are things like completing
medication or stretches.
And the Symptom Tracker lets
patients view all of their
subjective or objective
measurements that they track.
And these could be things like
tracking weight and blood
pressure, or mood and pain
scores.
And so, over the last year we
have heard feedback that many
patients would like to see all
of their activities, both
interventions and assessments,
in one view.
And so, to support that feedback
our team has created what we are
calling our Care Contents view.
Which lets you combine all of
those activities and see them in
one tab.
So, let's go ahead and take a
look at this new Care Contents
view.
And you'll see in my example
CareKit app that I've set up to
help manage my migraines, we can
see all of my activities, here.
And they all contribute to the
same completion score at the
top.
But let's go ahead and jump into
this and dig in, piece by piece.
Because we have lots of other
updates to share, as well.
And you'll see here, at the top,
we have a new header view with
lots of UI updates, including
this new ring view, to show
completion.
As well as the new heart icon in
the center.
As users complete their
activities for the day, this
ring will fill up.
And once they reach 100%
completion, the circle will fill
in and a star badge will appear
in its place, which you can see
in the week view at the top.
And this lets user quickly
glance and have an idea for 100%
compliance days.
And what's even more exciting,
is that this new heart icon you
see in the center is just one of
28 icons designed by Apple's own
HI team.
And you can now, leverage these
glyphs and icons within your own
CareKit apps.
And not only will they display
beautifully on the patient app
that you just saw, but they'll
also appear beautifully as a
complication on the watch.
That way patients can quickly
glance at their daily progress
for the day.
And so, using these new glyphs
is really straightforward.
All you need to do is just set
the glyph properties within the
view controller, and then your
desired icon will display upon
navigating back to your Care
Contents view.
If we zoom out and we look at
the rest of my Care Contents
tab, you'll see at the top,
here, my three intervention
activities for the day.
Of which I've already completed
several, including two of my
breathing exercises from my
watch.
I probably should have done
another one.
But we'll go ahead and scroll
down, and we'll see that we also
have my two assessments.
My two assessments for sleep and
stress.
My sleep data is coming directly
from HealthKit, that way I don't
need to do any additional entry
on my part.
And then, my stress survey, I
can quickly fill out using a
ResearchKit survey.
And unfortunately, you notice
that I did not get much sleep
last night, and I was a bit
stressed when I took my survey.
I think if I took that survey an
hour ago, it probably would have
been ten.
But let's go ahead and scroll
down, and look at the rest of my
Care Contents view.
And you'll notice that we've
made a few other updates, here.
The first one lets you now tag
activities as optional.
And so, this means that these
activities will not contribute
to your daily completion score,
at the top.
So, as you can see here, it's
great for take-as-needed
medications, like my ibuprofen,
that we don't actually require
for the patient to take as part
of their care plan.
Right below that, you'll see
another new activity that we
have, which is a new Read Only
activity.
And this lets you now, just
display informational text to
the user, that actually doesn't
require any action on their
part.
So, let's go ahead and take a
look at how we can create these
new optional and Read Only
activities.
As you can see, here, our team
has created a brand new Boolean
parameter, specifically for
optionality.
And as you saw on the Care
Contents view, by setting that
to true, it will prevent my
ibuprofen from actually
contributing to my daily
completion score.
We also, took a look at the new
Read Only activities to display
information to the user.
And you'll also notice that we
created a new Read Only
initializer.
Which this will allow you to
now, create these activities the
same as you would any other
activity type.
And so, there you have our new
combined view, that we're
calling Care Contents, with all
of your activities,
interventions, and assessments
on the same tab.
As well as some new other
activities that we just saw.
And so, with that, I'd like to
now jump into a new topic and
introduce you to a brand new API
that we have built this year, to
support thresholds.
So, this new API will let
developers set and track two
different threshold types,
adherence or numeric, which you
can link to specific Care Plan
activities.
And so, let's look at how we can
create these thresholds in the
code.
And you'll see it's pretty
straightforward, again.
Just depending on which type of
threshold you want to use.
You just need to make sure that
you're using the corresponding
initializer type.
So, while numeric thresholds can
only be applied to assessments,
adherence thresholds can be
applied to both assessments and
interventions.
And once you've gone ahead and
created those thresholds, you
can then use them to perform any
custom logic you want.
The Care Plan store is going to
automatically notify you any
time one of these new thresholds
has been invoked.
And so, to support this new
capability, our team has gone
ahead and made a few updates to
the Insights tab.
That way we could leverage these
thresholds and display them in a
nice way.
So, here at the top, you'll see
a brand new widgets view.
And this lets you display up to
three widgets for you to now,
highlight key values to your
patients.
What's even more, is you can
link these widgets to a Care
Plan activity.
And then, you don't need to do
any additional work.
And all of the values and widget
colors can update automatically,
based on the most recent data
inputs, as well as the
thresholds that you've already
set.
So, let's take a look at how we
can create these widgets.
And we'll start by checking out
my Stress Assessment that we saw
from my Care Contents view.
So, here we have my Stress
Assessment.
And we'll see that the first
method for creating widgets
actually handles all of the data
fetching and updating for me.
All we need to do is just link
it to the Activity identifier
that we want to display, and the
rest will happen behind the
scenes.
The second method for creating
widgets allows for a little bit
more customization.
You can specify exactly what you
want to display, by just using
the title and text parameters,
as you see, here.
And so then, once you've gone
ahead and created these widgets,
it's then, really easy to pass
them into the view controller
you saw, by using our new
patientWidgets parameter.
And this will help ensure that
your desired widgets will appear
when you navigate back to your
Insights tab.
So additionally, some thresholds
might require additional text or
information that you want to
give the user.
And so, we've created this
separate section, below, for
threshold alerts.
That way, you can create
messages for specific
activities.
And this will be evaluated the
same as the widgets above, and
automatically display if one of
those thresholds has been
invoked.
And so, there you have our
Insights tab, which we've
updated to really leverage these
new threshold APIs that we've
built.
And let's go ahead and jump into
our last tab for CareKit, which
is Connect.
You'll notice a lot of the same
features, here, including our
Profile header view, as well as
your care team members and
contact cards.
But you'll also notice this new
inbox feature.
And if we tap into that, it will
take me to my messaging screen
with my care team member.
So, our team has gone ahead and
built the UI that will allow
developers who want to take
Connect one step further, by
connecting their patients to
their care teams directly
through messaging.
So, there you have CareKit.
And we've made lots of update,
including our brand new combined
view, as well as UI and features
across all of our tabs.
And additionally, we are also
announcing a new bridge API for
CareKit, that will allow you to
now synch this data with
compatible HIPAA compliant
backends.
And to learn more about that, I
highly recommend going to
tomorrow's talk, hosted by
Kelsey Dedoshka, on Connecting
CareKit to the Cloud.
So, up until this point, we have
focused a lot of our attention
on the developer community.
But we understand that CareKit
has a much wider audience that's
interested in this framework.
And that is namely those of you
in the medical profession, as
well as those of you in
academia.
So, I'm really excited to say
that this year, we are releasing
a new tool for nontechnical
audience.
And to talk more about that, I
will invite my coworker,
Srinath, up to the stage.
>> Thank you, Sam.
Hello, everybody.
My name is Srinath.
I'm a software engineer at
Apple.
And today, I'm here to talk to
you about the CareKit
Prototyping Tool.
Developing Healthcare centric
apps comes with its own set of
challenges, as many of you might
have experienced.
But the most interesting one is
that it requires a lot of
collaboration between the deeply
knowledgeable healthcare
community and the amazing app
developers.
Now let's say, for example, that
I am a physician and I'm really
interested in exploring the
possibility of taking a post
discharge treatment plan, which
I conventionally hand out to my
patients as a piece of paper.
And somewhat digitizing it, by
converting it into an app that
is easy to use and which would
also allow my patients to track
their medications and adherence
on a day to day basis.
Which is crucial for their
successful recovery.
Now, this sounds like an amazing
idea and I'd love to pitch this
to my department.
But before I can do that, there
are a few things which I need to
do on my own.
First, I try to explore what
technology is already available,
out there, that can help me
achieve this goal.
Then, I move on to creating some
sort of rough sketches in order
to visually represent to other
people what exactly I have in my
mind.
And then, finally, I feel that
I'm well prepared to take this
idea to my department.
And if, and only if, they
approve it do I get to hire the
necessary resources to get
started on developing the actual
app.
Now, switching back to my
developer mode, it's interesting
to note that the initial few
steps of this process is
typically handled by someone who
has little or no experience with
iOS app development.
Ever since we announced the
CareKit framework, in 2016,
we've received a ton of requests
from healthcare professionals
and people in academia.
Inquiring about nontechnical
resources that can help them
better understand the
capabilities of the CareKit
framework.
This is when we realized that
there seems to be a barrier for
entry for our nontechnical
audience.
Which is why we've come up with
a tool that can help simplify
this process, by allowing anyone
to create a custom prototype
CareKit app, without having to
write any code, at all.
Now, by the end of this talk
you'll be able to take a
treatment plan that looks like
this, and convert it into a
prototype CareKit app that looks
like this, just by modifying the
contents of a human readable
file.
Now, before I show you guys how
this can be done with a demo,
let's take a step back in order
to see how this thing is wired
up, under the hood.
So, what we have here, is a page
which we call the Care Contents
view.
You will be able to add all the
medications and assessments
which you want your patients to
adhere to on a day to day basis.
What we have done is we have
created a mapping between the
underlying code that generates
this page, and the parameters
which define the characteristics
of every single element.
But let's take a closer look at
what I'm talking about.
So, what we have here, is called
an assessment.
Now, your patients will be able
to tap on this.
And in this example, they'll be
able to enter a value in a scale
of one to ten, in order to
denote how much pain they are
experiencing at that given point
in time.
Now, this element can be
represented in a simple tabular
format that looks something like
this.
Now, the values which you type
into this table will help
characterize the element that
you're seeing on that page.
Now, let's try modifying some of
these values and see what
happens.
So, now I'm trying to create an
activity which is of type
intervention.
And more specifically, I want to
create an intervention for the
acetaminophen drug.
Now, this new table will map to
a totally different element on
my UI, as you can see here.
I believe that now is a good
time for me to introduce to you,
as to how we have implemented
this mapping.
We are using something known as
a PLIST file.
Now, for all the developers in
the audience, you guys know that
a PLIST file is basically an xml
file, in which you can have key
value pairings.
But for our nontechnical
audience, you can think of it as
a form which has different
fields that you can fill out.
We have gone ahead and applied
this mapping throughout the
CareKit framework.
So, for example, here you see
the Insights tab.
This is a great place for you to
display critical information to
your patients in the form of
widgets, threshold parameters,
adherence messages, and charts.
All these elements are
configurable.
For example, the widgets that
you are seeing on top of your
screen here, can be easily
mapped, once again, to a tabular
format that looks something like
this.
And similarly, for the Contacts
tab, depending on what values
you provide as part of the PLIST
file, you'll be able to
characterize the contact which
you want to add.
So, now that we have seen how
this mapping methodology works,
in order for us to get started
on using this tool there are two
important components that are
necessary.
The first one is called XCode.
And to all the developers, here,
I hope you guys know what XCode
already is.
And for our nontechnical
audience, please bear with me
for a second, while I try to
explain to them, what XCode is
in a succinct manner.
You can think of XCode as the
one stop shop for creating apps
that can run on any Apple
device.
And let's leave it at that.
So, XCode is an application
which is provided by Apple.
And you can download it for free
from the Mac App Store.
You can just tap on install and
it'll automatically show up in
your Applications folder.
Now, the second part to this
puzzle is called CareKit
Repository.
This is nothing else but a bunch
of files that you need to
download in order to start using
the CareKit Prototyping Tool.
And this is available from our
website, CareKit.org.
You can scroll down and tap on
the menu that says get it on
GitHub.
That'll take you to a new page.
And from there, you can click on
the Download button in order to
download a zip of the file.
Now that we are all set up to
start using this tool, let's
jump right into a demo where
I'll show you how you can build
a custom prototype CareKit app.
[ Applause ]
So, this machine already has
XCode installed.
So, right now, what I'm going to
do, is I'm going to go ahead and
fetch the files from the CareKit
repository.
So, I'm going to type in here
CareKit.org.
I'm going to scroll down, get it
on GitHub, and when I tap on the
Download button, here, I have an
option that says Download Zip.
And you'll notice that the files
have downloaded, already.
So, let me open that up.
And now, I'm going to just close
out Safari, because I don't need
it anymore.
So, this is a bunch of files
which we will be able to see,
immediately.
And you don't have to bother
about all of them.
The files which you are
interested in is located in this
folder called the CareKit
Prototyping Tool.
And inside this, you can double
tap on OCKPrototyper.
And the particular file which
you need to open is called
OCKPrototyper dot xcodeproject.
So, now when I click on this and
tap Open, it'll automatically
launch using the XCode app,
which I just downloaded from the
App Store.
So, this is your first look at
XCode.
And before we get started with
modifying anything, let's try to
run this Prototype app and see
what is looks like.
Now, in order to do that, you
have to focus on the top left
corner, only.
Make sure that you have selected
CareKit Patient.
These individual elements are
called schemes.
And we are interested in the
CareKit Patient scheme.
And then, you need to decide
which device do you want to run
your prototype app on.
And here, I'm going to select
iPhone 7 Plus.
And in order to start running
this, all you have to do is
press the Play button, right
here.
So, there we go.
So, here you'll notice that we
have launched a new window, and
this is called the iPhone
Simulator.
This is an application which
tries to mimic an iOS device,
very accurately.
So, here you'll notice that the
app has launched.
It already has the three
important tabs.
The first one is called Care
Contents.
Now, as I start interacting with
every single element to indicate
that I've completed this
medication, you'll notice that
it is contributing towards my
daily completion goal.
Which is my adherence, as well.
The next one is called Insights.
Here, you'll notice that I
already have a couple of widget
items.
And I have a prepopulated chart,
as well.
The final tab is called Connect.
Here, you have the different
contact, along with some
information.
And you also, have the brand new
Inbox UI, which Sam spoke about.
So, you can tap in here, type
out a message if you want, click
Send, and it'll behave the way
you would expect it to.
So, now that we have done all
this, let's actually start
modifying some of these things.
Now say, for example, that you
took screenshots of these
different pages, and you showed
it to some colleague.
And I did something similar, and
I got a feedback that said,
''This looks comprehensive, but
let's add a few more things.''
So, one of the main feedback was
that I should add a new
medication for ibuprofen.
Next, they wanted me to add a
new assessment.
And then, finally, they also
were a bit critical about the
glyph icon, here, and they
wanted me to switch that out.
So, let's see how we can do
that.
So, I'm going to go back into
XCode.
And all the files can be
accessed, here.
And I can tap on this little
arrow button, here, in order to
collapse it.
And the files which I am
interested in are the PLIST
files.
So, there are two files that are
available, here, Patient dot
plist and Template dot plist.
Template, as the name suggests,
just has some guidance on what
values you can or cannot use for
certain fields.
But the file which actually
tells all the tricks behind is
Patient dot plist.
Now, you notice that there are
five sections available, and
each one corresponds to a
specific element in your
Prototype app.
Now, if I want to add a new
intervention or assessment, the
subsection which I'm interested
in the most, is Care Contents.
So, let me go ahead and see what
is already available.
So, I collapse it, and there are
there items available for me.
So, the first one is an
intervention.
And this is for the
acetaminophen medication, which
you saw in the Prototype app.
The next one is an assessment
for pain.
And the final one is Read Only.
So, in order to start creating a
new intervention, the easiest
thing to do is to just right
click on it and click Copy.
And now, I can paste it back
right in.
So, here I can go ahead and
modify the values.
So, for identifier, they need to
be unique across all my
activities.
So, in this case, I'm going to
just keep it the name of the
medication, which I am trying to
add.
So, the title is going to be
Ibuprofen.
The dosage here, is going to be
about 200 milligrams.
And instructions, I can say
something like ''Take as
needed.'' And one more thing
which I can do is set the tint
color of the circles that
appear.
So, in this case, let's say I
want to set the green color.
So, here I can put in a hex
value, directly.
So, I'm going to just try
0x00ff00, which stands for
green.
And it'll automatically convert
it to its decimal equivalent.
And one other important thing
about adding medications, is
that you should specify the
schedule, as well.
How many dosages are your
patients supposed to take, and
when.
That can be specified by going
to the Schedule subsection.
And under this, you can specify
the start date and date, as well
as occurrences on each week.
So, I'm going to go to
Occurrences.
And you'll notice that this
looks kind of weird.
But this pretty straightforward,
in the sense that there are
seven elements, here, which map
to the seven days of the week.
Starting from Sunday all the way
to Saturday.
So, if I want to prescribe two
dosages of ibuprofen on every
single day, I can just change
these values to two on all seven
days.
And with that, I'm done adding a
new medication to my Prototype
app.
The next thing which I want to
do, is add an assessment.
So, I'm going to follow the same
routine, where I copy, paste an
existing assessment.
And I'm going to change this to
Mood.
I want to create the mood of my
patient.
So, here Mood.
Ten being very happy.
And one more thing you can do,
when it comes to assessment, is
that you can leverage the new
threshold functionality, which
we spoke about.
So, in this case, what I want to
do, is if my patient enters a
value which is below a certain
threshold, I want to display
some sort of an alert to them.
Which could be very important,
depending on the scenario.
So, let's see how that can be
done.
So, I'm going to click on
Threshold.
You'll see that there's an item
available, already.
You can add multiple items to
the same Threshold, as well.
But in this case, I just want
one.
If the value entered by my user
is less than three, I want to
throw an alert that says,
''Please reduce pain medication
dosages by half.'' And the final
thing which I need to do, is set
the schedule, as well.
And I want this to repeat once
every day.
Right now, it is repeating on
alternate days of the week.
So, I can just go ahead and
switch that out, as well.
And that's it.
So, the final thing which I need
to do, based on my feedback, was
to change the glyph type.
And looking at the different
subsections, you'll notice that
there's one that says UI
customization.
So, that is probably a good
place to start.
And here, you'll notice that
there is a subsection which says
Care Content UI.
Glyph icons, typically, appear
only in Care Contents view.
So, I'm going to go ahead and
click on that.
And there is an option available
for glyph type.
Currently, it is pointing to
Home Care.
I'm going to switch this out to
Heart.
Now, obviously, there are only
certain values that you can
enter, here.
And all those are listed in your
Template dot plist file.
So, you can reference it as you
are going about it.
And now that I'm done, I'm just
going to go ahead and click this
Play button, again.
And let's see what happens.
So, I have the Simulator, here.
And there you go, my app
launches.
First thing, you'll notice that
my glyph icon has changed to
Heart.
There is a new survey.
And you'll notice that there's a
new ibuprofen medication, as
well.
And it came in the tint color
which I specified it as.
And once again, you can go ahead
and interact with all of them,
and they will automatically
contribute to what's your daily
goals, as well.
So, I can go to the Insights tab
and you'll notice that,
currently, there are no
threshold alerts available for
me.
But if I go to my survey, and if
I enter a value which is less
than three.
So, I'm going to enter two, in
this case.
And if I go back to Insights,
you'll notice that we have
automatically calculated that,
and we are displaying an alert
for your patients to view within
the Prototype app, as well.
And that is the demo for this
tool.
[ Applause ]
So, you guys saw how easy it is
to create a prototype CareKit
app that is tailor made for your
custom need.
Now, I would like to go over a
quick overview of the CareKit
Prototyping Tool.
And to switch things up, I want
to start off by acknowledging
some of the limitations of this
tool.
First and foremost, this can be
used for prototyping only.
There's no way that you can
build a fully functioning app
using this tool, which you can
immediately share using the App
Store.
There's no support for adding
custom views.
And you won't be able to
integrate with any of the
frameworks which we provide as
part of the Apple ecosystem.
So, for example, if you want to
create the heartrate of your
patient from their Apple Watch
and display that back to them in
the form of a widget, that is
not something you'll be able to
do using the tool.
You'll be able to create a
mockup of that, but not the
actual implementation.
And now, let's deal with some of
the features for this tool.
You could be a physician or a
PhD student.
You'll be able to pick up and
start using this tool without
having to write any code, at
all.
The second thing, is that you
can create multiple PLISTs and
switch between them, thus
allowing for rapid prototyping.
And because the CareKit
framework is opensource, if you
have created a PLIST for your
custom case and if you want to
share it with the community, you
can do that, as well.
It is highly customizable,
because we have applied this
mapping approach throughout the
CareKit framework.
And finally, if you are a
developer, and if you are really
interested in any of the
features we spoke about, today.
And you want to try it out for
yourself, you can give it a spin
using the CareKit Prototyping
Tool.
And then, make an informed
decision as to whether or not
you want to incorporate this as
part of your app.
And for the designers out there,
if you have created brand new
assets, you can plug them into
the project in the Assets
catalog.
And then, reference them using a
PLIST file, and build the apps
which can run across multiple
devices.
And all this can be done without
having to write any code.
We really hope that this tool
can help bridge the gap between
the nontechnical audience and
our amazing and vibrant iOS app
developer community.
In such a way that it can spur
innovation in the field of
healthcare centric apps that can
have a meaningful and lasting
impact on the lives of our
users.
And with that, back to you, Sam.
>> Thank you, Srinath.
So, we're super excited about
tools like these.
We think they can really
accelerate the learning and the
community, and bring your ideas
for CareKit apps to life, that
much faster.
So, with that, I'd like to go
ahead and start wrapping up out
talk, now, by reminding all of
you that ResearchKit and CareKit
are opensource.
And so, that means that they
truly are what we make of it.
Yes. So, we are so excited about
your participation, so far.
And of course, we have some
ideas and suggestions of where
we think that these could go,
together.
So, first off, up until this
point, ResearchKit and CareKit
has focused solely on the
participants and the patients.
But we understand that all this
new data flowing through from
these populations is extremely
valuable to both researchers and
care teams.
And so, that means it's really
important for all of us to start
thinking about the best way to
visualize this population data
for researchers.
So, that way they can gain the
most insights from their
research studies.
As well as for care teams, that
way they understand how to best
monitor or update care plans
based on their patient data.
Additionally, if you start to
build hooks into your apps, that
let them integrate with
different EMR systems.
We would love for you to build
those hooks in such a way that
you can bring them back to the
community.
And let others leverage these
capabilities.
And lastly, we feel that there's
always room to build new modules
for both of our frameworks.
And these modules could support
things like rich educational
content or social networking and
community platforms.
That way, participants and
patients can connect with each
other.
As well as different reward
systems, so that way, users can
better understand their progress
or engagement within your app.
And so, then, I know you guys
all have ideas, as well.
And once you start developing
these features and feel like
they're in the place that you
want to bring it back to the
community.
Then that's where our team will
step in and then work with you
to enhance that feature and get
it ready for our next release.
And we'll do that by providing
you with accessibility testing,
as well as localization and QA
testing across all of our
supported devices and platforms.
And once, we feel like the
feature is ready and we've
worked with you to get it there,
we will then, merge it into the
framework and get it ready for
our next release.
So, I want to thank you all,
again, for contributing and to
continue to contribute.
We're really excited to see what
you do with these new features
and updates.
And so, I hope you all enjoyed
hearing about the latest updates
and features for ResearchKit and
CareKit.
And if you want to get more
information about this talk or
links to our GitHub Repository,
you can access them all here, at
this URL.
And again, if you have time, to
check out any of these other
related sessions.
As we mentioned, tomorrow, we'll
have a talk on Connecting
CareKit to the Cloud, that I
highly recommend you guys check
out.
So, thank you all, for attending
our talk.
I hope you all enjoyed this.
[ Applause ]