The devices may even be implanted in soldiers and continuously monitor their status, the Army's top doctor said in describing the near future of Army medicine.

"We should be monitoring all soldiers, all the time, looking for patterns of injury or other signs for early detection," said Lt. Gen. Nadja West, the Army's surgeon general, during a talk May 8 at the Association of the U.S. Army in Arlington, Virginia. "We can do better when every soldier is a sensor, and we can continuously monitor information culled from them."

The monitors would send out streams of detailed data on a soldier's health. For example, a device could measure blood sugar levels and a doctor or nurse hundreds or thousands of miles away can check on a soldier's diabetes and recommend treatment or calibrate insulin.

"There is an explosion of wearable and soon to be implantable peripheral monitors," West said. "It completely revolutionizes how we can follow and impact a soldier's health and a patient's health."