Then came endoscopic spinal fusion, a brand-new, minimally invasive procedure that allows physicians to perform the same complicated work of rebuilding the spine by working from a one-inch incision along both sides of the back. There's minimal trauma to the body. Patients go home the next day, often in much less pain, and are back to normal-except for lifting heavy objects-in three to four weeks.

"When I heard about this procedure 18 months ago I said, 'No way,'" says Dr. Thomas Sweeney II, a fast-talking, energetic and upbeat Sarasota spine specialist who's likely to say "awesome" when asked how he's doing and then add, "but that's just baseline." But once he investigated the procedure, he started to try it. To date, Sweeney has performed more endoscopic spinal fusions than any other doctor in Florida and is nationally known as an expert in the procedure.

Sweeney says this is one of the most exciting developments to come along in his field. "What arthroscopic surgery has done for knee surgery, endoscopic back surgery will do for back surgery. It allows us to pass through the body without doing damage. Formerly, we had to strip attachments and move muscles aside," he says. "That could cause a problem by fixing another."

Sweeney says he's still astounded at some of his patients' responses, and the new procedure satisfies every orthopedic surgeon's deepest desire-to rebuild the body so it works.

"Even yesterday, I went to the hospital to see a woman who I'd performed surgery on the day before. She was already dressed, cheery-eyed and ready to go home. She told me she was waiting before she took any pain medication. Even though I know this is supposed to happen, it's just amazing to me. I couldn't be happier."

Dr. Lee Mitchel-pill camera

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Maybe you remember the classic 1966 sci-fi film Fantastic Voyage, where Raquel Welch and Stephen Boyd are miniaturized and injected into the body of a Russian spy, then travel throughout his body fighting off white blood cells and antibodies. The visual effects of what the body might look like from the inside won the film an Oscar and inspired awe in audiences back then.

That's not too far from how Dr. Lee Mitchel, a Sarasota gastroenterologist, feels about the recently FDA-approved M2A camera, a tiny picture-taking pill that travels through the gastro-intestinal tract, taking 50,000 pictures during its eight-hour journey before it's naturally eliminated.

"It's just remarkable," says Mitchel. "It's a non-invasive way to find out what's going on in your small bowel. It's painless. You need no anesthesia. In fact, I did it myself."

Mitchel says the M2A-a not-very-poetic acronym, meaning mouth-to-anus-is a tiny $450 camera with a light source and a transmitter that radios images to a receptor strapped around a patient's belly. The pictures are extremely clear and can diagnose a particularly hard-to-reach part of the body-the 10 to 18 feet of the small bowel.

Colonoscopies, which pass a long tube with a light into the rectum, and endoscopies, which pass the tube through the mouth, can't reach most of the small intestine. A longer endoscope, called an enteroscope, requires more skill from the doctor and anesthesia for the patient. The M2A, swallowed with a glass of water, painlessly travels to this part of the body and provides an annotated log of its journey. The only obstacle patients need to overcome is the idea that they're swallowing a camera. In Sarasota, Dr. Mitchel was the first physician to use the new technology, available at Doctor's Hospital, and he's been teaching it to other doctors. He's been able to diagnose everything from tumors to Crohn's and celiac disease. "This is the first time we can view the entire small bowel in a painless fashion," he says. "You know the expression, 'where no man's gone before?' That's what it feels like. It opens our eyes to a new horizon."

Mitchel says the next generation of capsule technology is looking at making the pill a tiny robot that can be guided to take tissue samples and perhaps provide treatments like removing polyps or cauterizing tissue.

"It sounds like Buck Rogers, doesn't it?" he says.

Dr. Scott Corbett-radio frequency to control heartburn

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Commercials may use humor to sell heartburn medications, but heartburn is not a laughing matter to the 40 million Americans who suffer from it.

Sarasota gastroenterologist Dr. Scott Corbett says heartburn, which is really a symptom of GERD (gastroesophagcal reflux disease), not only causes severe pain, but can lead to chronic conditions such as asthma and cancer. "It's the primary cause of adult-onset asthma," he says. "And it can cause a pre-cancerous change in the esophagus [known as Barrett's esophagus] in 13 percent of patients with reflux."