(FORTUNE Small Business) – [THIS ENTIRE ARTICLE IS A COMPLEX ILLUSTRATION. SEE PDF OR HARDCOPY OF MAGAZINE]

1 THOUGHT POWER Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems is developing a brain implant that may let quadriplegics move a computer cursor just by thinking about it. Roughly the size of a baby aspirin, the device goes onto the surface of the brain and connects to software that Cyberkinetics, of Foxborough, Mass., developed to interpret brain signals. The first patient to receive the implant began moving a computer cursor within three months of his operation, faster than the company expected. Four more people will be added to the study, and peer-reviewed results should be out by mid-2005. —ELLYN SPRAGINS

2 NERVE TRANSPLANTS Surgeons are learning to help accident victims regain their mobility through nerve transplants from donors or cadavers. The technique involves transplanting a nonessential nerve from the calf. Andrew Elkwood, a plastic surgeon in Shrewsbury, N.J., has performed four such experimental operations. Previously, surgeons had to rely on patients' own nerves for grafting material, a significant limitation since patients didn't have much "spare wire," Elkwood says. Using cadavers and living donors increases the supply and the number of patients who can potentially be helped. —MICHELLE ANDREWS

3 BETTER REPLACEMENT JOINTS Replacement shoulder surgery has been around for decades, but the one-size-fits-all approach can lead to problems. Now Exactech, a company in Gainesville, Fla., that specializes in artificial hips and knees, has a new shoulder that allows surgeons to adjust the angles of the titanium alloy device, giving a more custom fit. It should be available in the spring, tapping a market of 25,000 annual shoulder surgeries, worth more than $100 million. —CHRISTINE Y. CHEN

4 HEART SUPPORT CorCap, a polyester-mesh pouch that harnesses an enlarged human heart, could help the estimated one million U.S. patients who suffer from congestive heart failure. The custom-fit device wraps around a dilated heart, enabling it to pump more efficiently. CorCap's manufacturer, St. Paul-based Acorn Cardiovascular, just completed a three-year, 300-patient study and hopes to win FDA approval sometime in 2005. —RON STODGHILL

5 FAT FIGHTERS To combat the obesity epidemic, several small firms are looking into alternatives to gastric-bypass surgery or stomach-stapling, which are costly, painful, and irreversible. Transneuronix of Mount Arlington, N.J., is developing an electrical stimulator, already sold in Europe, that can be implanted in the stomach wall and deliver pulses of current to make you feel satiated. (You control the current via a remote control.) IntraPace, based in Menlo Park, Calif., is also working on a pacemaker-like appetite-control device for the stomach. Both are several years away from being released. —C.Y.C.

6 MRI-SAFE DEVICES MRI scans are on the rise (up 20% a year) and are safer for some patients than X-rays because they involve no radiation. But if you have metal implants in your body, such as pacemakers or stents, MRIs can be fatal. The magnetic forces could cause the devices to twist inside you or heat up. Biophan Technologies, based in West Henrietta, N.Y., is developing thin nanomagnetic films that would coat such devices and act as magnetic shields. The first MRI-safe products, including pacemakers, should hit the market in late 2005, and others, such as this drug pump, will follow soon after. —M.O.

7 SPINAL REPLACEMENT PARTS Back-pain sufferers got good news in October when the FDA approved the first synthetic spinal disk, made by Johnson & Johnson. Some small companies have similar offerings in the works. Spine Wave, based in Shelton, Conn., has two products now in clinical trials outside the U.S.: NuCore Injectable Nucleus, which replaces the jelly-like inner core of spinal disks, and the StaXx Wafer System, used to help repair broken vertebrae and prevent dowager's humps. Spine Wave is now in talks with the FDA about how to bring both products to the U.S. —E.S.