But what if there was a technology that was not only massively cheaper, but also much faster, as well as more sensitive and more capable? Well, there is.

At least that's what Ilan Levy, one of Intel's big brains at its research centre in Israel (yup, that'll be the same Israeli outfit that saved Intel's bacon with first, the Pentium M, and then, Core 2 CPU architectures).

The Merlin@home transmitter’s wireless technology gives patients the additional comfort of having devices automatically checked. Since the transmitter initiates the scheduled follow-up and uses RF wireless telemetry to download data from the device, the entire follow-up procedure is conducted without any direct patient involvement. The only requirement is that each patient remains within range of the transmitter while it reads his or her device. Patients also may initiate data transmissions as instructed by their physicians.

The Merlin@home transmitter is transportable and can be set-up wherever a standard phone line is available, typically by the bedside for data transmission while the patient sleeps. Data downloaded by the Merlin@home transmitter is sent to Merlin.net PCN, a secure, Internet-based data management system, where it is stored for review by the patient’s physician.

“We have simplified remote follow-ups to the extent that they are now something that can be performed seamlessly without interrupting the patient’s day. Patients simply set-up the Merlin@home transmitter; after that, the system handles all aspects of patient follow up, including daily monitoring,” said Eric S. Fain, M.D., president of the St. Jude Medical Cardiac Rhythm Management Division. “The simplicity of the system reduces the chance of patients missing follow-up transmissions.”

The Merlin@home transmitter also monitors cardiac devices outside of regularly scheduled follow-ups. The system can perform daily checks to monitor for alerts about device performance or about patient heart rhythms that may have been detected by the implanted device. Merlin.net PCN can be programmed to alert a physician directly – including an on-call physician outside normal business hours – in the event that the monitored data reveals an episode the physician needs to know about as soon as possible.

“By directly alerting physicians, the Merlin@home transmitter and Merlin.net PCN can help reduce risks associated with cardiac episodes that physicians would want to know about right away,” said Fain. “Without this notification, these events might go undetected for significant amounts of time. Direct notification is one more way to give physicians more control over their patient’s critical health care.”

The Merlin@home transmitter will be available in the U.S. early this fall and internationally in the fourth quarter.

Lieberman is now testing the iShoe technology in a small group of patients. The current model is equipped to diagnose balance problems, but future versions could help correct such problems, by providing sensory stimulation to the feet when the wearer is off-kilter.

"By doing that we can replace the sense and thus improve people's balance," Lieberman says.

Lieberman and other iShoe team members have applied for a patent on the technology, to be jointly held by MIT, Harvard and NASA. In April, the company won a $50,000 grant from the Lunar Ventures Competition to help with start-up costs.

Lieberman originally developed the technology to help NASA monitor balance problems in astronauts returning from space.

Zero gravity environments wreak havoc on the vestibular system, one of three body systems that control balance. (The others are vision and sensory receptors called proprioceptors, which tell you where your body parts are in relation to other body parts and the outside world.)

"The change in gravity really screws with their sense of balance. They're falling all over the place," says Lieberman, who is a Hertz Fellow and also receives funding from the National Science Foundation and Department of Defense.

The effect usually lasts about 10 days, but NASA tests astronauts' balance for 16 days after their return. Astronauts go into a phone-booth-like box, where they undergo a series of balance tests such as platform shifts and wall shifts.

While at NASA, Lieberman developed a new system for gathering data and an algorithm to analyze the data.

"We've developed the first algorithm that is really capable of not just looking at the pressure distribution of proprioceptors on the feet but also analyzing what that's saying," he says.

Lieberman soon realized that the technology could reach a wider audience than just astronauts. His own grandmother suffered a bad fall several years ago, and he theorized that a balance diagnostic could help doctors catch balance problems before such a fall occurs.

"You have a gradual progression of loss of balance, osteoporosis, and other factors that can lead to the fall," Lieberman says.

The iShoe insole would measure and analyze the pressure distribution of the patient's foot and report back to their doctor. The device could also be outfitted with an alarm that would alert family members when a fall has occurred.

"PUMPING" data around a wireless network of sensors - just as blood is pumped around the human circulatory system - could allow the sensors' batteries to last four times as long.

Sensor networks like the ones used for environmental monitoring are usually "tree-like". Their branching structure means information gets from A to B quickly, but means devices have to be turned on permanently to co-ordinate the data traffic.

As part of his final year project in his Masters degree in Electromechanical Engineering, which he studied at the University's School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS), Fauzan Baharudin explored the potential for the use of thick film technology in the development of medical sensors which could be embedded in the knee during surgery.

This new sensor, called Serial In-vivo Transducer (SIT), which uses thick film technology, could measure tendon force during Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) reconstruction.

The ACL is the most commonly injured ligament and is frequently damaged by athletes; in fact it is reported that this is the ligament associated with Tiger Woods' injury.

Fauzan's project was supervised by Professor Neil White in ECS, who in 1991 developed thick film piezoelectric material. This made it possible to produce a sensor that could power itself if it were installed in a device that vibrates and would be ideal for appliances where physical connections to the outside world were difficult.

Professor White said: "Although this work is still in its infancy, our earlier research in thick-film sensors has shown that it is feasible to apply the technology to medical applications such as prosthetic hands. We have also shown that it is possible to harvest energy from the human body using piezoelectric materials and the knee is subjected to very high levels of force during everyday activities. It therefore seems logical to combine the two approaches to deliver a new type of embedded, self-powered sensor.

In Fauzan's project, entitled Assessing the use of thick-film technology in knee surgery: along with energy harvesting in-vivo, he has also incorporated some of this energy harvesting capability into SIT which means that it will be self-powered.

"I chose knee surgery because there has been very little research carried out in this field and I felt a self-powered device could work well in the knee," he said.

Before developing SIT, Fauzan reviewed the existing devices in this field and concluded that due to its flexibility in fabrication, low capital cost, fast lead time and its suitability for use in the body, thick film technology is the best solution for ACL surgery. Assessment of the energy harvesting feature revealed that the device could produce more than enough energy to power itself.