We are pretty surprised that it took this long for a stethoscope to go the way of hands-free headsets, picking up Bluetooth technology in the process. 3M ensures this happens by working with Zargis Medical, where their partnership resulted in the 3M Littmann Bluetooth Stethoscope. As the name implies, it increases the physician's ability to get more out of an exam, boasting the capability of transfering recordings to a computer so that one can have a historical set of audio playback for future analysis, or perhaps even share selective sounds with colleagues for a second opinion. You get 24x sound amplification and proprietary Ambient Noise Reduction (ANR) Technology with each of the 3M Littmann Bluetooth Stethoscope, but it can't be used to tune in to Lady Gaga's latest on your iPod.

Giving birth can be a very messy affair instead of the 10-second births that you witness on TV shows and movies all the time. In order to ensure maximum survivability for both mother and child, having a well trained nurse by her side is definitely a huge plus. While hospitals can't just go rounding up expecting mothers to help them in the training of their nurses, this Pregnancy Simulator ought to help - at least for trainee nurses at St. Mary’s Hospital in Blue Springs. A life-size, anatomically correct pregnant doll is there to provide the complications faced inside an actual delivery room to hone the skills of up and coming nurses. We wonder whether there will be an equal amount of blood to keep things real in the simulator.

Touchscreen capability is all the rage these days, and Toshiba knows that, hence their Viamo portable ultrasound convertible touchscreen device which is touted to offer a similar image quality as that of premium cart systems. The whole works will include a wheeled pole which is capable of toting the viamo as well as extra transducers for easy exchange. It takes but a few seconds to power up this system upon opening it, making it useful almost instantaneously in critical situations.

The price to pay for being an industrialized nation would be living with pollution. We're pretty sure when our forefathers came to North America a few hundred years ago, everything was in pristine condition - fast forward to today and we have clogged up rivers, polluted seas and the ever present problem of smog. The Dectectair vest aims to alert you to places where air quality is less than satisfactory, using a pattern of embedded LEDs located right across the chest which lights up to reflect the surrounding air quality. The worse the quality gets, the more a bunch of small vibrators will jump abound, alerting you to the situation. You can then wear the collar that doubles up as an impromptu medical/dust mask.

We will never look at the term "sound bytes" the same way ever again as the SoundBite system turns it literal - this unique hearing system will help transmit audio to the inner ear through teeth, thanks to a tiny unit that is worn behind the ear as well as an in-the-mouth (ITM) hearing device which will be specially made to fit either the upper left or right back teeth. All captured audio will be sent wirelessly to the ITM device, which will in turn send imperceptible vibrations through the teeth near-simultaneously to both cochleae. This unconventional hearing aid relies on bone conduction, and is currently undergoing clinical trials before it is deemed fit for public usage. Guess this is one hearing aid you can't wear while eating, eh?

The Withings scale certainly brings a whole new dimension to your home as you see how much weight you have gained/lost each day, alongside essential details such as BMI among others, but now it comes with an update that integrates Google Health for better health record keeping. Google Health isn't new at all as this service has been around for some time already, allowing you to maintain an online health profile that can be accessed as long as you have an Internet connection. It would go some ways in helping doctors as well as family members keep track of your health history. In a tie-up with Withings, the accountability factor in keeping up to your daily health routine becomes even bigger as others can now keep track of your profile on your behalf.

Tanita managed to turn their common pedimeter, a $77 device known as the FB-730, into one that is able to send data to a nearby RFID travel card which is similar to those found on train and bus networks in Japan, Hong Kong and London. Once you have arrived home, all relevant data can be synchronized with a computer followed by uploading it to the company’s Karada Karute (Body Card) website, where one is able to monitor one's ongoing progress. The current system from Tanita works only in Japan, but it has worldwide potential that can be explored sometime in the future.

Keeping track of the elderly, especially those who are hit with memory ailments can be a rather tricky job, but good thing the Aerotel GeoSKeeper system works by helping you keep tabs on the wearer's location. It comes in a wrist-worn form factor, featuring the combination of a cellphone and GPS system, although we are left rather bewildered at the lack of a built-in clock which would certainly be useful to check out the time at a glance. How does the Aerotel GeoSKeeper system work? Well, it will alert you whenever the wearer ventures out of pre-set safety zones, while calls can be made to selected numbers via the appropriate button.

As one gets older, the body starts to suffer the ravages of time, and having the right pills and medicine on time is always crucial to prolong your time here on earth. Some people use pillboxes with days stamped on the front, but for others that isn't enough - hence the Portable Mini Yellow Green Medicine Box Timer. Retailing for just $2.20, you get an alarm clock which allows you to program in the times where you need to take your pills, although it needs to be set within a 24-hour time period without the ability to select different times for other days of the week. All the less complicated though, which is also a good thing in itself.

Some drunk drivers can still walk in a straight line during certain tests, but the TruTouch 2000 dispenses with such anomalies by relying on near infrared light to detect possible intoxication - a procedure that requires a mere finger scan, yielding accurate results within 15 seconds. Now that's fast - we don't think a police officer is able to issue a ticket at that speed either. Thanks to a built-in biometric identification system in the TruTouch 2000, all test results are authentic so there's no way to squirm through court with your summons with claims that they got the wrong person.

WIN Human Recorder Co. Ltd. of Japan has rolled out a brand new health monitoring service which utilizes a sensor network to function. The user will need to wear a small, portable sensor that is attached to the body, where details of its readings can be easily accessed via a cellphone or a computer. Dubbed the "human recorder system," it will be able to measure electrocardiographic signals, heart rate, brain waves, accelerated velocity, body temperature, respiration and pulse wave among others. A single CR2032 battery is able to keep it going for up to four days while using 2.4GHz wireless connectivity to transmit its data, making it a whole lot more convenient to remotely monitor the health condition of an elderly person who stays far away from a healthcare provider or assistant. The service might cost up to $111 monthly for software rental, while the sensor itself will retail north of $300 after conversion.

[CES 2010] Wellcore, a Silicon Valley-based startup, launched its new Mobile Personal Emergency Response System (M-PERS) with motion detection and advanced pattern recognition, the company claims that its patent-pending technology can distinguish falls from other type of motion with unprecedented accuracy. The elderly are often left out of the new emerging technologies because they are not seen as cool as the youngsters and supposedly "early adopters". I am happy to know that finally, a company made an effort to appoint a famous designer, Dr. Hartmut Esslinger, founder of frog design, to develop a stylish innovative device that will help the older generation live a longer independent life at home. Features include automatic fall detection, online monitoring, and text-to-speech messaging, complete features list after the jump. The device will be available for pre-orders on February 18, 2010 from www.wellcore.com for $199 (one base station, one device and online activity monitoring site) with a monthly recurring monitoring fee of $49.99.

Guess reading books to gain knowledge isn't the only way to go these days - there is, after all, the Internet. The Gravida Nurse Prenatal Education Device takes things one step further as it features a touchscreen display that shows off educational articles for expectant moms to know all the do's and don'ts of pregnancy alongside care for their newborn child. This device also features images and voice to help increase the absorption of knowledge by the user. You will be able to add in or change the memory card to learn other lessons, we suppose. Pretty neat for a $22.69 device!

Hearing aids have certainly come a long way from being an embarassment initially for its wearers to something that is deemed normal and necessary in this day and age for folks suffering from hearing loss. Well, brains of this generation has further shrunk the hearing aid to make it fully implantable, with the FDA's Ear, Nose, and Throat Advisory Committee discussing whether it approve Envoy Medical's fully implantable hearing aid for general use or not. Hopefully so, as this would certainly eliminate the potential of having you misplace your hearing aid.