Last year, our colleagues at Medical Electronic Design and Medical Device and Diagnostic Industry reported that Ford Motor Co. would be partnering with Medtronic to integrate medical devices into its cars. The automobile manufacturer's goal was to develop smartphone-like apps that could be integrated into the display panel in modern vehicles. Such applications would incorporate Bluetooth synchronizers for blood glucose meters and provide health-related data, such as pollen count and air quality.

That was then. Now, Ford is going even further, allying with Microsoft, Healthrageous, and BlueMetal Architects to make its cars even more like virtual doctors offices. While BlueMetal Architects designs a prototype system for extending health management into the vehicle in a nonintrusive fashion, Healthrageous hopes to advise drivers—based on such health information as blood pressure, fitness activity, and glucose levels—how to live healthier lives. It is worth noting in passing, however, that driving on America's highways and streets is often not conducive to lowering blood pressure. As for Microsoft, its technology translates robotic sensory information provided by the vehicle into a voice- and touch-activated interface to control the user experience. Also part of the system, its HealthVault will be used to process much of the data and provide the driver with useful graphical reports.

Obviously, the move to turn cars into patient monitoring stations should provide food for thought to designers and manufacturers of medical devices about how they can provide the enabling technologies—such as sensors and graphical user interfaces—to develop and expand doctors offices on wheels.

To get a better idea of what Ford and its partners have in mind, see the video below. —Bob Michaels