A couple of years ago, at the ADA Conference, Medtronic’s booth featured a car equipped with glucose-sensing technology right in the dashboard. We all giggled. Cool idea… sort of. Right?
And what do you know? Yesterday, Ford Motor Co. and Medtronic actually unveiled a prototype of this system (!), enabled by Ford’s SYNC 
technology, a sophisticated Microsoft-based digital interface that lets drivers and passengers control their cell phones and MP3 players via wireless connections and voice commands.
They actually unveiled a package of “health and wellness solutions and apps, aimed at helping consumers with chronic illnesses or medical needs such as diabetes, asthma or allergies manage their conditions while on the go.” This included the glucose monitoring capabilities, location-based allergy and pollen reports, and voice-controlled health management services. Wow.
The two diabetes-specific apps are:
- The Medtronic Bluetooth-enabled in-dashboard CGM reader. (See PDF fact sheet here.)
“Drivers with diabetes who wear a Bluetooth-enabled Medtronic continuous glucose monitoring device could enter a Ford SYNC-equipped vehicle and pair their device – as well as their cellphone – with SYNC, giving them the ability to use voice commands or steering wheel controls to receive audible alerts or center stack displays about deviations and trends related to their blood glucose levels.”
and
- WellDoc’s cellphone-based DiabetesManager service, which can now be used in your Ford automobile via voice command (PDF fact sheet).
Here’s a video demonstration of “Joe the Diabetic,” using the WellDoc service in his car (please excuse the blatant Ford-plugging). It has a whole conversation with him about breakfast and glucose tabs and everything!
And here’s the companies’ vision of how the Medtronic CGM-automobile hookup could help all the diabetics in the car, not just the driver:
So how excited are you all? The ability to hook up our diabetes devices to our mode of transportation is pretty Jetsons, no? Seems very useful, yet I’m sure some people will see it as too invasive and “Big Brother-ish.”
I’m quite sure of this, when I think of all those who balked at the Test Drive winner in last year’s DiabetesMine Design Challenge — an in-car system meant to safeguard against getting behind the wheel when your glucose is too low to drive safely.
Thoughts, our PWD Friends…?
I think it’s cool, although I’m not a Ford car driver, and have no intention of becoming one, not even for this technology. I’m more of a Honda gal, so if Honda (or Toyota) introduced tech like that, I’d totally go car shopping
I’d love voice commands for my diabetes paraphernalia. “Blood sugar, drop 60 points. NOW!!” If only it would listen…..!
Wow, I can’t believe car companies are actually interested in this — but great news for pwds and cwds…I love it!
While on the surface this sounds like a great idea, to be able to live monitor any diabetic passengers (w/CGSM), especially children sleeping during short or long card rides and having that instant monitoring capability.. Same goes for drivers… But, I think its got its potential pitfalls by unscrupulous greedy corporations and gov’t. Most notably, insurance companies and big brother and the data being used against you in a court of law. There will be a witch hunt by insurance companies to get access to this data and use it to jackup insurance premiums for diabetics. Don’t we all remember those little black boxes they wanted to put into vehicles? This just takes it a step further with the data already being stored on board in the HDD…. I would not hook up to it…. No way.
This would be pretty cool – if I owned a Ford! (Well, maybe for my next car I should buy American. After all, it would help the economy!
The real part of the story is missing here — why do none of our devices have a way to wireless communicate via a secured bluetooth (or other tech) connection to whatever device I want to sync it to (download raw data, etc). Sounds like the MS Sync tech is an easy opt-in for Medtronic since the tech is simplified on their side since MS is trying to get anybody to care about their Sync platform.
In short, the car is not most interesting part of this story – the real story is opening up our devices to various avenues for freedom of the recorded data (phones, computers, etc). This has huge implications.
So does this have to be approved by the FDA? What are the chances? I’d rather see money invested in developing a closed loop system of insulin delivery!
@Barbara – the FDA issue was our big question too. So far, the companies have been very vague about it, stating only:
“We’re not attempting to turn the car into a medical device itself, but enabling the convenient and safe use of those devices and services from our partner companies. View the car as a platform, no different than a smartphone or tablet, as it acts as a conduit for information to be shared from the app/service/device to the driver while driving.”
btw, I wanted to add that the ability to view CGM readings on the dashboard could be very useful for long road trips in particular — but I do worry about how that data might be used in the event of an incident.
The WellDoc thing in the car seems kind of silly to me. Plus I have to assume that the questions it poses are generated by some algorithm — with huge potential for error. It would probably end up saying / asking a bunch of random stuff, rather than anything relevant to your diabetes at that given moment. Just my 2c.
From the first moment I saw pictures of the CGM equipt concept car a few years back, I knew it would be worth every penny to parents of TWD (teens with diabetes). My soon-to-be fourteen year old daughter has already been told that she will only be allowed to drive if she’s wearing a functionig CGMS.
[...] » NewsFlash: Ford & Medtronic Demonstrate In-Car Glucose Monitoring – DiabetesMine: the a…. [...]
This is really awesome, BUT I think I’d get annoyed with a car telling me how to manage my diabetes. I just imagine having a five minute argument with my car every morning before I could leave.
[...] (hat tip: DiabetesMine) [...]
Agreed, this is the start to the Test Drive design concept from last year and it’s a great starting point to be at, but this is not practically efficient in my eyes. I do not want to have a conversation with my car about testing my blood sugar and what to do about it. Rather than spend five minutes of wasted car time talking, why not just test and be on the way. More significantly, the video doesn’t show any CGM connection capability which would seem like the most beneficial part of this – to monitor while driving. With the rollout of Texting While Driving bans nationwide, this actually seems like it would go against some of those state-enacted policies and make drivers more likely to test and do other distracting things behind the wheel. The potential isn’t yet realized on this concept, Ford and MM. the “car BG connection monitoring” idea seems worthwhile but not in the form the video presents. But, it’s a starting point…
Having a screen to look at is just like texting while driving — it diverts driver attention. There are enough things to pay attention to while driving, that this would be one more thing. I’d really rather use my time-tested method of sipping on a regular soda during long-distance drives, and taking breaks every hour or two. Even for parents with CWDs, their attention needs to be on the road — STOP if you think your child needs attention!
[...] (hat tip: DiabetesMine) [...]
[...] (hat tip: DiabetesMine) [...]
I would like to know if i can have access to use the video in this weblink to use in my PowerPoint presentation tomorrow, September 12, 2011. the presentation will be on the car and the health benefits for having the glucose machine in it.
Carin Rhodes
Student @ University of Phoenix, Lathop, CA
209-888-7791
I would like to have persmission to use the video in the above link in my PowerPoint presentation tomorrow, September 12, 2011. I am a student at the University of Phoenix in Lathrop, CA and I am doing the presentation on the Ford vehicle and the benefits of the glucose monitoring device to the consumer.
Carin Rhodes
209-888-7791
[...] working on several accessories to go along with their CGM. Along with Ford, they showed off an in car glucose monitoring. They have already brought MySentry, an alarm clock like remote glucose monitor to [...]