A news report from The Wall Street Journal reports that the new Apple ResearchKit allows patients to participate in clinical trials via sleep and exercise tracking apps.

The app, called mPower, is one of five disease-related apps for clinical trials released in March in connection with Apple Inc. ’s introduction of ResearchKit, a platform where users can track personal health data and participate in health studies. Other apps include My Heart Counts for cardiovascular disease, Asthma Health, GlucoSuccess for diabetes, and Share the Journey, for a study of the aftereffects of treatment for breast cancer.

Together the apps—and patients like Mr. DeMello—offer a glimpse of how the ubiquitous smartphone has the potential to transform medical research. Taking advantage of smartphone features such as accelerometers, gyroscopes and GPS locators, the apps track real-time daily activity and supplement other information on a patient’s condition.

Get the full story at www.wsj.com