Apple gets hands-on with Watch and health apps

Apple has unveiled its new watch and, along with it released ResearchKit, an open-source software tool designed to give scientists a new way to gather information on patients by using their iPhones.

The announcement was made at an event in San Francisco to unveil details of the Apple Watch, which ranges in price from $349 (€320) for the basic model up to $17,000 (€15,700).

Several top research institutions have developed apps to work on the ResearchKit platform, including those pursuing clinical studies on asthma, breast cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.

To help sell a computer designed to be pressed to the flesh all day, Apple is pitching the watch and iPhone as medical research tools that will turn wearers and users into volunteers for medical studies.

ResearchKit, available next month, is Apple’s open source set of tools that researchers can use to build apps aimed at diseases. Users can sign up for studies, take tests, describe symptoms — and begin sending their data to researchers.