About 25 years ago, I watched a 1956-vintage episode of "Science Fiction Theater."

In the eppy, an overweight, late 50s, soon-to-retire police officer was chasing a suspect down an alley.

The suspect climbed a fence. As the patrolman attempted continued pursuit by climbing the fence, he fell to the ground with quite a serious coronary.

He survived, and was implanted with a device that would monitor his heart movements and let a nearby hospital know if anything funky was detected.

The technology worked. The next time his heart was stressed, the radio signal was dispatched to the hospital and help came in time.

Now, I'm reading about an Ottawa, Ontario-based company called Zarlink Semiconductor. They've just rolled out a chip that could let doctor's monitor a heart patient's pacemaker in real time, from miles away.

According to Reuters wire service, the chip is inserted inside a pacemaker, which wirelessly sends data (such as an abnormal heart flutter) to a bedside base station in the home. The base station then sends the information over the Internet or phone to a doctor's office.

Once the doctor, nurse or hospital attendant gets notification of the problem, they could then use the two-way wireless link to adjust the pacemaker.

We're not quite up to the capabilities depicted in that Science Fiction Theater episode, but we are getting there.

As Reuters' reporter Susan Taylor writes:

"Potentially, the tiny chip could let a pacemaker tell a similarly equipped mobile phone to contact emergency services during a heart attack. A phone with global positioning system technology could even help locate that patient."

Including out-of-shape policemen chasing robbery suspects.

Can't agree more with my Corante colleague Dana Blankenhorn. "Always-On" is arriving, and medical monitoring is the killer app.

No, make it the prevent-killer app.