Remember Geordi La Forge in Star Trek? Even in the future, he had an advanced technology composed of retinal implants and special goggles/glasses. Described in the Trekie literature as "a VISOR (Visual Instrument and Sensory Organ Replacement) that gave him visual capabilities that spanned a major part of the electromagnetic spectrum, far beyond the normal visual spectrum of light."
Thanks to Medpundit, the first clinical trial of an artificial retina implanted into the eye showed  that it worked well enough to allow the blind to distinguish light from dark and even to see simple objects. "The goal of this project is to develop an implant which is capable of allowing patients to see complex or even perfect images." The sub-retinal procedure is based on replacing an area of lost (dystrophic) photoreceptor rods and cones with an implanted micro-photodiode array (MPDA).
A number of research projects have as their goal to create some of the medical marvels that we have enjoyed in the episodes of Star Trek over the years. For example, one of the most famous was the tricorder, a medical body scanner. Interestingly enough, the BBC News reported a while ago that British scientists have developed a Star Trek style device which measures vital health signs without the need for skin contact. Researchers at Loughborough University believe their technology could one day be used to measure blood flow, monitor the heart and assess how well wounds and burns are healing. The technique involves shining a light on a specific part of the body. Potential health problems are identified by measuring how much light is absorbed.
And for those who want to know what else might be on the horizon, here are a number of the star trek medical devices and accessories that have started as science fiction and may end up as science.
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