With transgender celebrity adorn magazine covers and the Supreme Court set to reign on gay marriage across the U.S. , the LGBT movement has come a tenacious fashion . But we ’re still far behind when it fare to address the wellness and wellness of LGBT people .
To handle that , medical researchers are launching a new “ PRIDE Study ” to shed some light on the singular wellness need of LGBT kinsfolk — and they ’re using iPhones to conduct it . A Modern ResearchKit app developed by the University of California at San Francisco will follow a broad range of LGBT family line about health topic like HIV / AIDS , smoking , cancer , obesity , mental issues and natural depression .
“ The master query there is , what is the relationship between being LGBTQ — or more broadly a intimate or gender minority person — and mental and physical health ? ” Mitchell Lunn , co - director of the PRIDE Study at UCSF , toldBuzzFeed News .
Lunn and his team of researchers are hop that the study will be particularly useful in addressing the health concerns of transgender and bisexual people , an understudied segment of the LGBT population . LGBT health counselor-at-law are also excited about the vast potential of tapping into the iPhone ’s massive user base to gather this vital information . observe people to contract up for a aesculapian study and getting them to come to a clinic is very difficult ; now they can simply submit information on their iPhones while sitting on the couch at rest home .
When Stanford University release its ResearchKit - powered app to measure heart activity , over11,000 iPhone users signed upin just a Clarence Day . Typically , it would take up to over a twelvemonth for a medical sketch to recruit that many participants .
For the residue of the yr , the PRIDE Study will ask people to suggest which health matter pertaining to the LGBT community they need the study to address , and the UCSF researchers will hoard that user feedback to make the last survey questions . LGBT folks can download thePRIDE Study appnow in the App Store or by texting PRIDESTUDY to 74121 to get a download connection on their iPhones .
The story behind the tale : Launched last March during Apple ’s “ Spring Forward ” event , the subject - source ResearchKit framework has already been used to build up apps to carry inquiry on diabetes , breast Cancer the Crab , asthma , cardiovascular disease and Parkinson ’s disease using information pull in by iPhone sensors and user survey . During his Spring Forward keynote computer address , Apple CEO Tim Cook called ResearchKit “ perhaps the most profound modification and plus impingement the iPhone will make on our wellness . ”
