Apple Inc. recently announced the release of ResearchKit, an open-source software framework that is expected to enhance medical research. Apple claims its product enables everyone to take part in research that will advance medical knowledge and that it is “taking research out of the lab and into the real world.”

Mobile health technology, including wearable sensors and mobile applications, has been available for some time. Companies have been developing mobile medical applications (MMAs) for so long that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has already established their classifications and safety-monitoring rules and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has established rules and the frequency band for use with wireless body sensors. While it appears that Apple actually was lagging behind, it is encouraging that it finally joined the trend.

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