Though recently threatened, the Telehealth & Telecare Aware What the Blue Blazes award has not been presented for some while, so it was kind of PC Magazine to draw our attention to an AT&T Innovation Day special of a Connected Car Seat that texts the car’s owners if it detects a child has been left in the car when the car temperature exceeds a pre-set level. When this editor’s two daughters were babies, leaving a dog in a car on a hot day was considered unacceptable, let alone a child, so to introduce a facility that may notify car owners of children at risk of overheating would seem to be the ultimate in irresponsible encouragement (most text messaging services of course guarantee neither delivery, nor maximum elapsed time to delivery, even if a parent happens to have their phone handy, & it’s switched on, & not on silent).
Now if the car was to persist in blowing its horn if it detected a car owner trying to leave a baby alone still strapped in the car on a warm day, or automatically phoned the police to report an overheating child left alone in a car, that might make more sense. (In Europe, the latter option – calling the police – couldn’t be simpler, as an add-on to eCall, the new automatic car emergency service being introduced across Member States in the next two years.)
Meanwhile in Jordan, a woman recovering from a caesarian section operation on April 24th, troubled by persistent vibrations in her womb eventually had the gynaecologist’s mobile phone removed from her insides, where he had put it down it during the operation.
Might this qualify as the first true mHealth implant, albeit temporary?
Hat tip to Prof Mike Short for alerting me to the Connected Car Seat.
Good grief on both! In the US, leaving a pet in a hot car can earn you a fine or even prison. Certainly texting is better than nothing — phoning police (911 in most US localities) and a visible alarm is far better. Guess the surgeon did not miss the phone!