Apple® has announced ResearchKit™, an open source software framework designed for medical and health research, helping doctors and scientists gather data more frequently and more accurately from participants using iPhone® apps.

Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) has entered into a multi-year development agreement with Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V. (Janssen). The collaboration aims to develop a new handheld blood test to provide doctors with a novel tool to improve the care of patients with neuropsychiatric disorders.

Leading UK software provider, Advanced Computer Software Group ("Advanced"), has been acquired by Vista Equity Partners ("Vista"), a private equity firm with over $14 billion in committed capital, for an enterprise value of £750 million. Shareholders will receive 140 pence per share equating to an equity value of approximately £725 million.

Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) and Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) today announced a new research collaboration aimed at improving preventative care and chronic care through wearable technologies. The organizations intend to attain new data-driven insights into the relationship between lifestyle and health in elderly people.

Royal Philips (NYSE:PHG, AEX:PHIA) today announced a joint development agreement with the Mount Sinai Health System, an integrated health system in New York, to create a state-of-the-art digital image repository of patient tissue samples and innovative data analytics to pursue the discovery of new tissue-based tests and unlock pathology data.

iPLATO the UK's leader in Health Tech announces today that its flagship GP service, iPLATO Patient Care Messaging now reaches more than 10 million patients through over 1,000 GP practices in England. iPLATO Patient Care Messaging allows practices to set up automated appointment reminders and to run high performance mobile patient engagement using text messaging as its primary communication channel.

An Accenture (NYSE:ACN) survey shows a growing demand among tech-savvy seniors (67 percent) who want to access healthcare services from home, but the majority (66 percent) are worried today's technology isn't sufficient to do so.