Apple's CareKit is a new health monitoring and management tool

Apple at its special event in Cupertino, apart from unveiling iPhone SE, 9.7-inch iPad Pro, Apple Watch watch bands, and announcing price cuts on iPad Air 2 and Apple Watch, also introduced CareKit, an open source platform targeted at those, that need health care apps, to keep track of care plans and monitor symptoms and medication.

The CareKit platform includes four major modules-  Care Card, Symptom and Management Tracker, Insight Dashboard and Connect Module.

The Care Card includes interactive list of medication courses, physiotherapy exercises and action/care plans for patients. The data of the activities is automatically tracked and collected via sensors on the iPhone or Apple Watch.

The Symptom and Management Tracker allows users to record their symptoms and bodily functions. The data is collected through surveys or photography and sensor-enable life-logging by using the iPhone's accelerometer and gyroscope.

All the data is recorded on the Insight Dashboard, which maps the data on the Care Card to assess the effectiveness of the course. Lastly, The Connect module lets users share the information and communicate with doctors, medical practitioners or family members. about their health or any change in condition.

To incorporate CareKit modules into mobile apps, Apple has teamed up with medical institutions and developers, so that it would be used in a wide range of cases initially involving Parkinson's patients, post-surgery progress, mental health, maternal health, diabetes management and home health monitoring.

The CareKit platform will be available in April.