Miniaturization continues to be a trend in medical electronics, and an upcoming project from Medtronic seems to capture the essence of less is more. The company is working on a new mini pacemaker that is about the size of a large vitamin. The device has been in development for about a year now, and Medtronic says it is about five years away from the market (assuming FDA approves it).

Medtronic is not necessarily depending on the United States market for this venture, though. The mini pacemaker wouldn't require the same level of expertise needed to implant traditional pacemakers, which is an obstacle in other countries where there are relatively few who are qualified. Countries such as Russia, China, India, and Brazil have been discussed as target areas.

"We would go through perhaps the femoral vein, which is the vein in the leg," says David Steinhaus, chief medical officer for Medtronic's cardiac rhythm disease management division. "We would run the catheter up into the heart and deliver this capsule, which would then have a fixation mechanism—a way to stick right inside the heart—and it would stick inside the heart, stay there and deliver its pulses as necessary." —Lawrence Lloyd