Ford's Health & Wellness tech to be discussed in San Diego

Taking advantage of Ford SYNC’s ability to connect via Bluetooth, access cloud-based services and interact with smartphone apps, Ford is developing voice-controlled in-car health aids that range from glucose monitoring devices and diabetes management to asthma amelioration tools and web-based allergen alerts.

Ford will provide demonstrations of WellDoc's cloud-based services at the Wireless Health 2011 Conference, highlighting their in-car health and wellness connectivity solutions, which include:

Glucose Monitoring
Working with Medtronic, a leader in glucose-monitoring devices, Ford researchers have developed a prototype system which allows Ford SYNC to connect via Bluetooth to a Medtronic continuous glucose monitoring device and share glucose levels through audio and a dashboard display while providing secondary alerts if levels dip too low.

Allergy alerts.
Ford is working with SDI Health and pollen.com to connect SYNC with its smartphone Allergy Alert app via AppLink, providing voice-controlled access to location-based day-by-day index levels for pollen, asthma, cold, cough and UV levels, as well as four-day forecasts.

WellDoc.
Ford and WellDoc, a leader in the field of mHealth integrated services, have joined to bring in-car accessibility to WellDoc's comprehensive cloud-based personalized solutions for those with asthma and diabetes through SYNC Services. Using voice commands, drivers can access and update their WellDoc profile to receive real-time patient coaching, behavioral education and medication adherence support based on their past and current disease information.

Bringing these solutions into the car in a safe and meaningful way, Ford first looked at two populations with the most need for a constant connection to potentially life-saving medical information – people with diabetes or asthma and/or allergies.

For folks with diabetes and caregivers, constant knowledge and control of their glucose level is critical to avoiding hypoglycemia or low glucose. Those conditions can result in confusion, lightheadedness, blurry vision and other symptoms dangerous while driving.

Equally important, victims of asthma and allergies need to be hyper-aware of their environment and potential symptom triggers that can quickly lead to a debilitating attack. Growing in popularity among this group are web-based alert services and smartphone apps that red-flag dangerous pollen levels at specific locales.

The Wireless Health 2011 Conference is organized by the Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance, bringing together researchers from institutions such as MIT, University of Edinburgh, UCLA, and other leading universities to share new research and significant advances in wireless health technologies with leaders from academia, medicine, government and industry.