Can I use ResearchKit without HealthKit?

Question

It's not necessarily a code question but more a restriction and/or limitation and/or understanding of Apple's privacy policies around ResearchKit and HealthKit.

Do I have to use HealthKit in order to use ResearchKit (my assumption based on code is no)? I like the survey part of ResearchKit but not sure I will use HealthKit to store data (related to next question).

Also, I've seen that HealthKit has strong restriction regarding data sharing but my understanding is that it's just for data gained via HealthKit, not necessarily data that the app itself has stored via HealthKit. Does the data sharing privacy policies only apply to data collected by other apps?

If anybody has ResearchKit experience, I will love to hear your point of view or to receive direction to some documentation about this.

Answer 1

Yes, you can use ResearchKit without using HealthKit.

A small part of ResearchKit survey questions and active tasks optionally pull data from HealthKit, but most of them don't. Also, the consent and charts modules don't directly interact with HealthKit.

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From the legal point of view, ResearchKit's license is BSD-like, so you can use ResearchKit code in any way you see fit provided you comply with its three points:

1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

3. Neither the name of the copyright holder(s) nor the names of any contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission. No license is granted to the trademarks of the copyright holders even if such marks are included in this software.

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If you want to advertise the fact that you app uses ResearchKit, you may do so as explained at the footer here:

You may use the ResearchKit mark in order to indicate that your product uses or is compatible with the ResearchKit software (for example, “for use with,” “for,” or “compatible with" ResearchKit) provided that:

1. The product does in fact use ResearchKit software developed by the ResearchKit.org open source project;
2. The ResearchKit mark stands apart from your brand or trademark (e.g., as in “ResearchKit for Chromium")
3. You do not seek to register a trademark containing ResearchKit or the ResearchKit logo; and
4. You do not state or imply in any way that Apple endorses, sponsors or guarantees your product, or was involved in or associated with its development.

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If your app is a clinical study and you want to submit it to the App Store, you need to comply with additional requirements as explained in the HealthKit and Human Subject Research section of the App Store Review Guidelines. It's also a good idea to follow the ResearchKit Framework Best Practices.

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Regarding your second question, HealthKit documentation states that:

(...) your app must not access the HealthKit APIs unless the app is primarily designed to provide health or fitness services.

So I'd only store data there if it makes sense from a health or fitness perspective. Otherwise, you'd be better off keeping your app data separately.