In recent years, unprecedented advances in the fields of biology, electronics and human genetics have led to the development of an impressive new set of instruments to protect and improve human health. Modern medical technology and complex data analysis are about to break out of their traditional confines of the hospital and the laboratory computer to make their way into our daily lives.

Future doctors will use these tools to monitor patients and predict how they will respond to certain therapeutic plans adapted to their physiology, rather than relying on the average response of large groups of people who participate in clinical trials. Advances in chip miniaturization, bioengineering and materials science are laying the foundation for new devices, which may replace complex organs such as the eye or pancreas, or at least help them to function better.

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The following pages provide a glimpse into some of the most promising developments in personalized medicine in genetics, artificial vision, oncology, implantable surveillance systems, and neuroscience. They may not all see the light. But together they suggest that medical technology will play an increasingly important role not only in the treatment of the sick, but also in the supervision of the health of healthy people.