As Americans take a more active role in managing their health and well-being, our researchers are taking a leading role in developing a series of health and wellness in-car connectivity solutions designed to empower people with self-help information while they drive.

Leveraging Ford SYNC® and its ability to connect devices via Bluetooth, access cloud-based Internet services and control smartphone apps, we are taking charge in this automotive whitespace area, developing industry-first voice-controlled in-car connections to an array of health aids from glucose monitoring devices, diabetes management services, asthma management tools and Web-based allergen alert solutions.

You can join a panel of healthcare experts here in a live chat on Thursday, May 19, 2011, at 2:00 p.m. EST to ask questions and learn more about in-car health and wellness.

Here is a little background on each of the live chat panel participants:

Anand K. Iyer, Ph.D, MBA, President & Chief Operating Officer, WellDoc

Dr. Anand Iyer serves as President and Chief Operating Officer of WellDoc. He has more than 20 years of consulting, industrial and academic experience in the areas of business strategy development, network engineering, economic modeling, service development and value network analysis. He is a pioneer in the realm of Telematics and Telemedicine, where he has developed and launched several initiatives with OEMs to transition their basis of competition from a product-base to a service-base.

Jody Fisher, Vice President, Marketing, SDI

Jody Fisher oversees all of SDI’s external marketing initiatives as well as new product development. He has been a significant contributor to, and business designer of, many of SDI’s key healthcare product lines and was the primary business architect for SDI’s prescription tracking services. In addition to Pollen.com, SDI produces over 60 Web-based services and products, including PollenLibrary.com, another popular site for America’s allergy-suffering public that focuses on allergy-causing plants and features county-level maps of these species.

Health of mind, body and spirit is a significant slice of a larger global health and wellness trend that is transcending multiple generations, spectrums and industries. So-called healthy homes, allergen-free cleaners and products, and the cosmetic and bariatric surgery boon, for example, are all converging to create an eclectic mash-up that is redefining health and wellness for today’s consumer.

An underlying consumer demand for being in the know about one’s health while on the go also continues to rise, fueling the growing number and breadth of mobile healthcare devices and health- and fitness-related software and smartphone applications hitting the market today.

To create relevant in-car features and services for those living with these ailments, we are working with experts in these fields, including medical device manufacturers, healthcare management service providers and Web-based medical alert services.

Ford SYNC offers three unique ways to bring health and wellness connected services into the car:

• Device connectivity via Bluetooth – Leveraging Bluetooth, medical devices can be connected to the car to share information through SYNC, just like a driver connects and accesses his or her cellphone and address book by voice control
• Cloud-based services – Ford created an off-board network of location-based traffic, directions and information providers that drivers can simply access via their cellphone. Known as SYNC Services, new services such as medical services can be easily added through this plug-and-play voice-controlled capability
• AppLink – the latest SYNC innovation allows smartphone apps to be accessed by drivers via voice control. The SYNC application programming interface (API) allows app developers to enable their apps to communicate through SYNC, delivering a smarter way for drivers to manage apps while driving

The ongoing Ford health and wellness research projects encompassing these needs include:

• Glucose monitoring: Working with Medtronic, a leading manufacturer of glucose monitoring devices, Ford researchers have developed a prototype system that allows Ford SYNC to connect via Bluetooth to a Medtronic continuous glucose monitoring device and share glucose levels and trends through audio and a center stack display and provide secondary alerts if levels are too low.
• Allergy alerts: Ford is working with SDI Health and www.pollen.com to SYNC-enable its smartphone Allergy Alert app through AppLink, giving users voice-controlled access to the app that provides location-based day-by-day index levels for pollen; asthma, cold and cough and ultraviolet sensitivity; as well as four-day forecasts.
• WellDoc: Ford and WellDoc, a recognized leader in the emerging field of mHealth integrated services, have joined forces to integrate in-car accessibility to WellDoc’s comprehensive cloud-based personalized solutions for those with asthma and diabetes through SYNC Services. Using voice commands, SYNC users could access and update their WellDoc profile to receive real-time patient coaching, behavioral education and medication adherence support based on their historic and current disease information.

Ford is also examining other more long-term health and wellness technologies and ideas related to, for example, heart rate, relaxation and reducing stress. Ford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have long been studying the correlation between stressors and driving performance, wrapping up a nine-month advanced research project last fall that showed drivers are less stressed when using selected vehicle technologies such as Ford active park assist and cross-traffic alert.