Within 24 hours of the launch of the ResearchKit app by Apple at its March 9 event, nearly 11,000 people enrolled themselves for participation in a cardiovascular study to be carried out by Stanford researchers.

The introduction of the research-based ResearchKit tool by Apple has led to the creation of a pool of hundreds of millions of iPhone users across the world; thereby giving medical practitioners the ability to find trial participants at unprecedented rates.

Already, the 11,000 sign-ups for a cardiovascular study, within a day of the unveiling of the ResearchKit app, have come as a pleasant surprise to the Stanford researchers. In response to the sign-ups for the study, Alan Yeung - medical director of Stanford Cardiovascular Health – said that enrolling 10,000 people for a medical study generally takes “a year and 50 medical centers around the country.”

Yeung also added alongside that the ResearchKit app highlights “the power of the phone.”

According to the details shared by Yeung, the ResearchKit app is being used by Stanford researchers to study the different ways in which people can be encouraged to make certain changes in their behavior, so as to bring about an overall improvement in their heart health. Yeung also said that Stanford researchers’ ResearchKit aims to automate as much data collection as possible for the cardiovascular study.