Quintiles, a biopharma services provider, has announced its contribution of enhancements to the ResearchKit framework which was designed by Apple to make it easy for researchers to gather data more frequently and more accurately from research participants using iPhone apps.

ResearchKit enables participants to easily complete tasks or submit surveys right from an app and delivers a simple way to present participants with an interactive informed consent process. Quintiles contributed enhancements to the ResearchKit framework to provide developers with extensions that support additional capabilities which, in turn, will allow them to create more sophisticated application experiences. Quintiles plans to use those enhancements to develop patient engagement tools for ResearchKit-based apps.

“Quintiles has a deep understanding of patient behavior, having conducted more than 400 direct-to-patient programs since 2008,” said Quintiles President of Technology and Solutions Richard Thomas. “We embraced those principles in our development of enhancements to the ResearchKit framework.

“We believe Quintiles’ contribution of these enhancements is a significant advancement within the clinical research industry,” Thomas said. “They will not only improve the apps Quintiles develops for its own use, but can enhance all apps developed using ResearchKit. Working with the ResearchKit framework gives us a profound understanding of its capabilities and how best to optimize it in the apps we develop for our clinical research customers.”