[rdl]

There are ways to fast-track in the US and other countries.

A medical device which had applicability to the military (specifically, IEDs, TBI, PTSD, eye/hearing protection or remediation of damage, traumatic amputations, or prosthetics) would largely avoid the FDA, too. There is going to be so much money in improving the lives of wounded veterans from Iraq/Afghanistan for the next 50 years, and it's going to be one of those cases where money you earn is also related to a societal benefit.

If I were in biotech/biomed or robotics, that'd be what I'd want to do; the only comparable-scale problems are reducing cost of care for everyone and dealing with an increasingly elderly population.