Diabetes Project Takes Flight

For many years, hot air balloons have filled the skies above the Navajo Nation. Each February, as balloons take flight for the Shiprock (N.M.) Balloon Festival for charity over Tse'Bit'Ai — Navajo for “Rock with Wings” — people look up to see the soaring signs of hope that manifest themselves in the brightly colored pockets of fire and air.

But this winter, balloons will come to mean more than just a charity festival to members of the Navajo Nation. In fact, the health of the Nation and its people will be measured by the rise and fall of balloons called SkySites.

Developed and monitored by Space Data Corp. of Chandler, Ariz., SkySites are high-altitude, balloon-borne transceivers that collect data from specified ground sources including Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs). As of Jan. 2, the SkySite technology is in use throughout parts of Utah, New Mexico and northeastern Arizona, monitoring the health of Navajo who live in remote areas and suffer from type 2 diabetes.

“Basically, [our SkySite balloons] are giving the Navajo Nation a tool to manage their almost-epidemic rates of diabetes and keep their people healthier through a new technology,” explained Jerry Knoblach, CEO of Space Data Corp.

The SkySite technology has been utilized by the oil and gas industries for years, to monitor everything from pipeline and storage tank alarms to asset tracking. The technology also helps with field communications. This fact has not gone unnoticed, particluarly by the U.S. Air Force, which recently awarded Space Data a $50-million contract to provide voice communications for troops overseas. The Navajo Nation project marks the first medical monitoring contract for the company.

The SkySites, which Knoblach described as “basically communication towers attached to modified weather balloons,” are launched from a municipal airport each day and soar more than 65,000 feet above the ground, collecting medical data — most notably results of glucose readings — from PDA monitors below in a coverage area that can range up to 420 miles. The information is transmitted to a database monitored by health care professionals.

The system is a lifesaver, according to Ray Baldwin Louis, public information officer for the Navajo Nation Special Diabetes Project, who says that without the program, many of the Nation's diabetics would suffer.