ResearchStack to Extend ResearchKit(™) Studies to Android

Cornell Tech, Open mHealth, and touchlab announced today that development is underway on ResearchStack, an open-source framework that will enable Android users to engage in emerging Internet-scale research studies. The project will extend research functionalities currently found in Apple’s ResearchKit(™) to Android, significantly expanding the number of people who can participate in medical research studies.

Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, ResearchStack will allow Android developers to rapidly create research study apps using libraries analogous to those of ResearchKit(™), including: scientifically-validated user consent forms, intuitive daily surveys, sensor inputs, secure communication and storage, and others.

The project is being coordinated by Deborah Estrin, professor of Computer Science at Cornell Tech and co-founder of Open mHealth. Estrin has been an active proponent of “small data” — providing tools for individuals to collect and analyze their personal data, especially for medical research and personal health.

“ResearchKit(™) was a great leap forward in making it easy to build modular research applications for mobile phones, with the one limitation being that these studies are only available to iOS users,” said Estrin. “With ResearchStack, we aim to more than double the size, and greatly increase the diversity, of the populations that these apps engage. We are looking forward to collaborating with the ResearchKit(™) and Android developer communities on this project.”

Touchlab, the top Android-only development shop in New York City, will collaborate with Michael Carroll, Technologist-in-Residence at Cornell Tech and CTO of healthcare startup RubiconMD, to design and implement the ResearchStack framework. Open mHealth, a nonprofit that provides an open standard for mobile health data, will bring developer community support and advise on clinically-valid data formatting.

“It’s pretty rare that you get to do what you love and have such a potential for positive impact on people’s lives,” said Kevin Galligan, president of touchlab. “Expanding research capabilities to Android will be a game changer for both the healthcare industry and Android community.”

“In a mobile-first age, tools like ResearchStack are critical to ensuring the broadest inclusion,” said Paul Tarini, senior program officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “Enabling more people to get involved in these studies – in a way that’s easy and fast –means we’re finding solutions that help everyone achieve the healthiest life they can.”

For more information, visit http://researchstack.org.

ABOUT CORNELL TECH

Cornell Tech develops pioneering leaders and technologies for the digital age. Cornell Tech brings together faculty, business leaders, tech entrepreneurs, and students in a catalytic environment to produce visionary results grounded in significant needs that will reinvent the way we live in the digital age. Cornell Tech’s temporary campus has been up and running at Google’s Chelsea building since 2012, with a growing world-class faculty, and about 150 master’s and Ph.D. students who collaborate extensively with tech-oriented companies and organizations and pursue their own start-ups. Construction is underway on Cornell Tech’s campus on Roosevelt Island, with a first phase due to open in 2017. When fully completed, the campus will include 2 million square feet of state-of-the-art buildings, over 2 acres of open space, and will be home to more than 2,000 graduate students and hundreds of faculty and staff.

ABOUT THE ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON FOUNDATION

For more than 40 years the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has worked to improve health and health care. We are striving to build a national Culture of Health that will enable all to live longer, healthier lives now and for generations to come. For more information, visit www.rwjf.org. Follow the Foundation on Twitter at www.rwjf.org/twitter or on Facebook at www.rwjf.org/facebook.

ABOUT OPEN mHEALTH

Open mHealth is breaking down the barriers to integration and making mobile health data clinically useful. With a community of developers and clinical experts, it builds tools which make it easier to use mobile health data all on top of an open standard. Open mHealth is a nonprofit started in 2011 with a team from all around the world. Learn more at

openmhealth.org.

ABOUT TOUCHLAB

touchlab is America’s Android Development and Design Shop. Officially founded in 2011, we have roots dating back to the Android Developer Challenge in 2008. Today, we’re fortunate to be the team that brands like NBC Universal and the Jane Goodall Institute turn to build exceptional Android experiences. And when amazing startups like Timehop and 1Second Everyday are ready to delight Android users, they turn to us. Learn more at touchlab.co or follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/touchlabNY.