High-Tech Health-Care Stocks to Keep Dad Healthy

Forget the golf clubs! We have some great investment ideas Foolishly wrapped up in this special series for Father’s Day.

If your dad is anything like mine, his love for tinkering with high-tech toys is surpassed only by his love for his kids. But even if he doesn't enjoy cutting-edge gadgets, he might like some high-tech health-care stocks for his portfolio. Here are a few he can spend time researching.

• Intuitive Surgical (Nasdaq: ISRG  ) sells robots that perform surgery. They're controlled by the surgeon, but you can't get much cooler than that. Benefits include shorter hospital stays and quicker recoveries. The stock has come down a little from its highs in April, but with a price-to-earnings ratio above 60, this is still a growth stock for sure.
• Hansen Medical (Nasdaq: HNSN  ) and Stereotaxis (Nasdaq: STXS  ) both make machines that help doctors guide snake-like catheters through a patient's body. Hansen is trailing in the development, but could be catching up as Stereotaxis' irrigated catheter continues to be delayed. They're both behind Intuitive Surgical on their growth charts, though; neither is profitable yet. That makes investing in them a bigger risk, but savvy investors could be rewarded with big returns.
• If dad's more of a penny-pincher, Boston Scientific (NYSE: BSX  ) might be just the thing. The medical-device maker got socked by news that drug-eluting stents -- tiny mesh tubes used to hold open arteries -- might not be as safe as their bare-metal cousins. The company has cut back on costs and it looks like the drug-eluting stent market might be picking up -- an excellent combination.
• Perhaps dividends are right up dad's alley? Look no further than Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ  ) , which has raised its dividends for the past 45 years. Band-Aids might be low-tech, but the company's offerings include high-tech items, from implants to drug-eluting stents. It even sells a machine that integrates Stereotaxis' catheter-guiding system.

Let's face it, the dads of the world aren't getting any younger, and are going to need added health care as they enter their golden years. Dads might as well benefit financially from this unfortunate fact of life by investing in the industry that may one day save their lives.