When we're suffering from serious illnesses, the last thing we need is to go to the doctor's office only to stew in the waiting room for hours. Is it possible for doctors to monitor patients while the latter are in their own homes? Well, unless you're ready to pay a premium for house calls, it's quite possible with the latest technology being developed. Check out the evolved band-aid and how it monitors a patient's vital signs in the full article.

 Worried that you'll drop dead when you're listening to music from an iPod because it interferes with your pacemaker? Worry no more. The Food and Drug Administration has dispelled this little myth with experiments that prove the iPod's innocence. Full details after the jump.

Bluetooth has become a staple of our current technology. A lot of devices use it now, from your personal computers to your game consoles. Now it's being explored for use in prosthetics. An Iraq war veteran who lost both his legs is walking again thanks to his Bluetooth prosthetics. Check out the full article for details.

There is currently no cure for Alzheimer's disease, but there may yet be hope of reversing the symptoms of the neurodegenerative disease if a certain prototype cognitive helmet designed by Dr. Gordon Dougal of the University of Sunderland lives up to its creator's and its user's expectations. More details on this strange-looking helmet after the jump.

We always see characters in high-tech spy flicks who possess HUD-integrated eyesight, but will that nifty spy gadget be confined to the silver screen only? It looks like it's going to be a reality, thanks to a group of engineers.

What used to be a fine art confined to mind reading stalls in carnivals, such practices may soon move to more practical uses in society with much more credibility.

German scientists have conducted a study using fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) devices to help determine specific brain patterns and eventually read a person's thoughts and intentions from them. Check out the full article for more details!

A new medical device called the i-Snake is set to revolutionize surgical practice. While it won't play your favorite mp3s, the i-Snake has numerous befits to both medical procedures and personal preferences. Well, it's less scary looking than a scalpel for one thing. But what is the i-Snake and what does it do? Details in the full article.

More and more hospitals are using the Wii console for the rehabilitation of their patients. The Mercy Fairfield Hospital is now using the gaming system to help patients who are recovering from stroke or who had joint replacements.

Details on how the console is helping patients after the jump.

John Kanzius, a retired engineer and former radio station owner, has invented a machine that could possibly be a better treatment for cancer than traditional chemotherapy. 

Mr. Kanzius' remarkable device emits radio waves instead of radiation and consists of jury rigged-parts from old pie pans, old ham radios and what not. Drawing on inspiration from his own personal battle with cancer, and determined to find a better alternative, Mr. Kanzius used his engineering know-how to design a machine that scientists are now testing on animals.

More on John Kanzius and his machine after the jump!

University of Bolton Center for Research and Innovation Director Elias Siores recently claimed that his team is on its way to perfecting a smart bra prototype that should help detect breast cancer even at its most early stage.

And even just for the effort, this team should be awarded by a Nobel prize or something. Kidding aside, the scientific concept behind the smart bra is thermography. What Siores and his team did was put a series of microwave antennae inside the underwear garment to detect temperature changes in the breast.

Aside from this, thermography is currently being used to detect the location of submarines and distant stars. As much as this could prove to be an important scientific breakthrough, some physicians are doubtful if thermography can be effective in detecting breast cancer.

Philadelphia's Thomas Jefferson University Hospital breast surgeon Anne Rosenberg had this to say:

This technique of using the microwave antennae to pick up and record temperature changes in the breast, with an alarm if the threshold is exceeded, would need to be validated in a clinical trial to determine whether it is sensitive or specific with regard to identifying cancers since not all of these temperature changes will be due to a cancer.

Elias Siores also said that we all agree that they key to fighting breast cancer is early detection. While his team will be releasing the prototype early next year, the inventor said as well that the smart bra should not be used at its early stage as a substitute for established approaches like mammography and MRI.