Describes recent technological advances in the field of medical electronics. One emerging field is tissue engineering. It sidesteps traditional medicine, which seeks the root cause of disease. If something is broken, tissue engineers try to fix or replace it. Recent technological advances also promote more refined operations on such vital organs as the heart. In lieu of the patient's chest being opened up wholesale, tubes are advanced toward the organ from peripheral blood vessels or through keyholes in the chest wall. Miniaturization is extending the digital revolution to hearing aids. It also allows monitoring of soldiers' vital signs and, if casualties can be found sooner, perhaps lower a level of far-forward battlefield mortality that has been unchanged in 150 years. Physicians, meanwhile, are, becoming more indebted to software for help in diagnosis. Indeed, this area of software is now being considered for regulation by the US government.