Health Care in Your Convertible

If you have to sit in traffic, you might as well do something to improve your health.

At the Digital Health Summit during this month's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Ford Motor Company promoted mobile health apps enabled by its Sync computer system. Ford announced partnerships with Microsoft HealthVault, Windows Azure and Healthrageous Inc. to develop a prototype system that works with "compatible biometric measurement devices."

Sync "provides easy, voice-controlled access to mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, and therefore it makes sense to research areas that are important to our customers," said Gary Strumolo, manager of infotainment, interiors, health and wellness at Ford Research and Innovation, in a news release.

Ford thinks cars could be the ultimate mobile-health platform. They're convenient and private, and they can provide "personalized access" to health information, products and services. Accessing health apps will give people something constructive to do when they're stuck in traffic, the automaker says.

BlueMetal Architects of Watertown, Mass., designed the prototype mHealth system. Boston-based Healthrageous compiles information collected from blood-pressure monitors, activity monitors and glucose meters along with "behavioral data" provided by the patient to help people end unhealthy habits, Ford says. Microsoft's programs "translate robotic sensory information" provided by the vehicle into an application with a voice and touch-screen interface.

The system will upload data from the driver to the HealthVault cloud and transfer the information to Windows Azure, which creates graphical reports that the driver can read upon reaching his or her destination.