Ford's Health & Wellness Initiative

[Sarah Willey]

A week after Ford announced it is working on in-car systems that would let motorists keep track of health issues, such as glucose levels for diabetics or pollen levels for asthmatics, from displays on the car's dashboard, today Ford has another announcement to make.

Ford Motor will announce that its research team in Aachen, Germany, has developed a car seat with six sensors that can monitor a driver's heart by its electrical impulses. Such a seat, if brought to market, could help heart patients monitor their health and provide an early warning of a heart attack.

The American Heart Association has reservations about this, stating that patients who need constant monitoring probably shouldn't be driving. What do you think?

Regardless, this new health and wellness initiative by Ford demonstrates the trend in personalized medicine across the consumer, industrial and medical sectors.

[Tanya Holloway]

I hadn't heard of the interesting point made by the AHA and Dana you also raise some valid points about the potential margin of error for a device like this. I guess the next step for Ford is to work with patient organizations/societies to educate consumers on what action to take if they think they are having a heart attack - most importantly pulling over I would imagine!

[Dana Gulick]

I saw this...first thought was the interesting timing, considering "Macho Man's" unfortunate accident earlier in the week (ah, pop culture). But then I got to thinking - could those sensors cause any negative reactions or electrical blips that sent the heart out of rhythm? How big is the margin for error considering the sensors are in a vehicle with its own electrical infrastructure? Will be interesting to see how this all takes shape.