CareKit is a brand new tool that allows patients share data with researchers and stay updated on their medical conditions.

CareKit is new project under Apple's medical-research platform, ResearchKit. The tool is meant for a wide spectrum of patients, not only for the ones participating in medical studies. The tool can be used by any health-app maker to let patients easily share their health details with the ones concerned about their health. Users can also get other information related to their health, like exercise results.

Thomas Goetz, founder of Iodine, which is one of six CareKit launch partners, said that the software is free and open-source, which means in theory, it may even function on other platforms such as Android.

Start, an app by Goetz’s company lets patients suffering from depression to keep a record of how effectively their medications are working and report symptoms to their doctors. Goetz said that with CareKit, it has become easier for them to design the app they are seeking. He added that it has solved huge part of the UX [user experience] design on which they have been struggling since long.

As per Apple announcement, CareKit is going to be launched in next month. Besides, Iodine, HealthKit is going to be launched with five other partners or team of partners.

Sage Bionetworks and the University of Rochester will soon update their ResearchKit-based program on Parkinson's disease to give insights to patients.

Texas Medical Center has come up with an app meant for cardiothoracic surgery patients. The app will allow patients to put in health data from Bluetooth devices like blood pressure monitors and they can also report symptoms to their doctors.

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center will also slip in info from health monitoring devices, although no details have been given by it so far.