A lot and not enough. My guess/hope is 40% of south Florida startups? 80% of Minneapolis St. Paul startups? 33% of San Diego startups? Look around those locations and Boston.<p>I used to do surgical AR. The immediate-now-future is nanodevices, rDNA pharma / gene therapy, and more exotic chemistry. Hardware and software only play a supporting role and smaller role in the final clinically approved therapy. No matter your background all require organic, molecular and various biochemistry or medical skills - probably not as much mechanical engineering as you hope now that CRISPR is here.
I was thinking about this today. Neuroprosthetics with feedback is the most exciting. The type where people can actually sense touch on the prosthetic limb...but it's probably still in the "research" phase. Any startup trying to do this may need to work with a doctor. You may also need to do surgery to access the nerves...or maybe there's a better way..<p>I'd love to work on something like this too!