Ford eyes health and wellness management for future Sync capability

For most of us, our daily driver is a respite from the grind. Ford Motor Co. sees it as a mobile health-care hub.

In a research and innovation forum on Wednesday, Ford announced its intentions to use Bluetooth, mobile apps and Sync connectivity to help drivers manage their health while on the go.

“The car is an extension of customer's lives. People spend almost one week per year behind the wheel,” said Paul Mascarenas, chief technology offer and vice president of Ford research and innovation. “The car is the ultimate mobile device for health and wellness management.”

Ford plans to help drivers, especially those who have particular health conditions such as allergies or diabetes, continuously monitor their well-being, participate in social networks related to their health and receive guidance, all while in their vehicle.

“This will deliver low-cost, convenient and continuous monitoring,” said UCLA electrical engineering professor Bill Kaiser, who has studied how wireless health technologies can be used to track a person's fitness and health status.

Partnering with Medtronic, which manufactures glucose-monitoring devices, Ford has developed a system that could allow Sync to connect with one of these devices, share glucose levels and trends and provide secondary alerts if levels are low. The driver might say “blood sugar level,” and the Sync system would respond with a reading and perhaps a suggestion on how to up sugar levels if necessary.

Ford is also working with SDI Health and www.pollen.com to enable drivers to access location-based readings on allergen level, asthma, cold and cough risks and UV sensitivity.

The carmaker is examining other health and wellness technologies, including those that could monitor heart rate, encourage relaxation and reduce stress.

“What we showed were our very first research projects into the area of health and wellness, but the opportunity is tremendous,” said Alan Hall, Ford's technology communications manager.

Tremendous perhaps, but just because something can be done, should it? What are the implications for driver distraction?

“Sync was developed due to a growing trend of drivers using mobile devices in the car and our research showing that the most dangerous behavior behind the wheel is that which takes your eyes off the road and hands off the wheel,” said Hall. “The growing trend of health and wellness management via smartphones presents another area in which Sync can provide a safer solution for use.”

Will a vehicle one day caution diabetics when a GPS senses that they are about to pull into a McDonalds? Sync can currently direct drivers to dining options, so it's not a stretch to imagine that it may one day be able to suggest wiser dining choices based on the driver's health conditions.

Similarly, those who have an Orwellian bent might take that one step farther, imagining a day when Sync would report a driver's health--and health choices--to insurance companies, or an arrangement in which drivers using these services would get an insurance discount.

“It would be too early to advise on what the insurers might think about this,” Hall said. “But it is definitely an area that we, or our health-care partners, would pursue.”

Chances are the pursuit is well under way. The technology is in the prototype-and-research phase and could be as little as 12 months to 24 months from initial implementation.

By Julie Alvin