"The company has been around for more than 120 years. It currently operates in more than 130 countries, selling hundreds of products, including Ultane (an inhaled anesthetic), the anti-infective Biaxin XL, and TriCor and Niaspan to manage cholesterol.

"However, Abbott's biggest growth driver is Humira, a blockbuster drug that targets autoimmune disorders. The drug has received FDA approval to treat a number of diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and Crohn's disease.

"One of my favor defensive sectors is healthcare," says Elliott Gue; the contributing editor to Personal Finance looks to Quality Systems (NSDQ: QSII), a company that helps automate medical records.

Quantitative analyst Richard Moroney also sees opportunity in the same niche sector. In his Upside newsletter, he looks to a competing play, Cerner (NASDAQ: CERN). Here are their reviews.

"The President made health care a centerpiece of his campaign, including investments in health care-related information technology (IT).

"Health care IT systems can save doctors' offices and hospitals significant administrative costs as well as prevent mistakes. In addition, some major health insurance firms are already putting heavy pressure on their physician networks to adopt these systems."

"Medical offices and hospitals are seeking to automate many functions, from storing patient records online to automatically submitting insurance claims for reimbursement.

"It's estimated that as much as 90% of health care records at smaller medical practices are still maintained in paper form, while even bigger hospitals keep close to half of their records manually.

"Quality Systems, a holding in our growth portfolio, is a leading provider of such systems. It sells software used to manage electronic patient records, billing, scheduling and other common administrative functions for medical and dental practices.

"Bull markets have been few and far between this summer; one of the few sectors that looks to have re-entered a bull trend is biotechnology," says international investing expert Nick Vardy.

In his Global Bull Market Alert, he explains, "The S&P Biotech ETF (ASE: XBI) looks to capitalize on this traditionally highly volatile and boom bust burdened sector." Here's his bullish assessment.

"Why the sudden merger and acquisitions frenzy in biotech? Put simply, 'Big Pharma' is cash-rich but innovation-poor.

"As patents on huge profit generators such as Pfizer's Lipitor expire, the traditional pharmaceutical industry is eager to refill its emptying drug pipelines.

"On the one hand, Big Pharma hopes giant acquisitions jump start pharmaceuticals' sputtering innovation machines. On the other hand, existing biotech blockbusters would also hedge against the coming collapse in earnings from drugs that are coming off patent.

"Stericycle (NASDAQ SRCL) is a near-monopoly in an essential but unglamorous area, making its an excellent investment in an uncertain economy," says growth stock expert Dave Dyer.

In his Dave Dyer's Newsletter, he states, "If you have something that is dangerous, contaminated, or nasty, and you want it to go away safely, you can rely on SRCL, the leader in medical waste."

"I first recommended the stock almost a year ago, but there is so much good news that I thought this would be a good time to recommend it again.

"And while the stock's 12.4% gain since last August is not spectacular, the S&P 500 is down 14.1% over the same time period -- so SRCL has outperformed the market by a wide margin.

"SRCL is North America's largest provider of medical waste services. In fact, if a major customer wants to contract with a single customer for nationwide services, SRCL is the only choice. Even if the market has not really bottomed out, this is an excellent stock to consider because its business is almost entirely immune to economic cycles.

Well today I lost some cash, at least 'on paper.' And if I believe what I read in the business news it is because of the comments of a single analyst. Now that's power. It has to make you wonder. Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ: ISRG), one of my biggest holdings, finished the day at $244.30 down $33.27. OUCH!

Shares of medical device maker Intuitive Surgical Inc. fell sharply Tuesday as an Oppenheimer & Co. analyst said the company's strong growth will slow in 2008 on fewer U.S. sales of the da Vinci surgical system, due to market saturation and a lack of adoption by gynecologists for hysterectomy procedures.

Analyst Amit Hazan said Intuitive Surgical is the most expensive stock in the medical technology sector, a value driven by both the company's robust growth rates and by results consistently beating Wall Street expectations by wide margins. He is correct that ISRG is expensive. Even after todays losses it still is trading at a P/E ratio of about 80.

Each year Steven Halpern, editor of TheStockAdvisors.com, surveys the leading financial newsletter advisors asking for their favorite stocks for the coming year. This article is part of his 24th annual Top Picks Report.

NightHawk Radiology Holdings (NASDAQ: NHWK) is the top speculative idea from Cory Janssen, editor of the Investopedia Advisor.

He explains, "Founded in 2001 and publicly traded for less than one full year, NightHawk took an otherwise run-of-the-mill component of the medical services industry, emergency radiology, and carved out a valuable niche for itself. Here's the diagnosis:

"Traditionally, hospitals and radiology clinics needed to have qualified radiologists on staff during all hours of the day; unfortunately, highly skilled employees prefer to work daytime hours. This makes it difficult for hospitals and clinics to meet their night-time radiology needs.

"Nighthawk recognized this logistical problem could be solved. It established radiology worksites in Sydney, Australia, and Zurich, Switzerland, providing on-demand immediate radiology services for hospitals and clinics all across the U.S. Its customers send the results of their radiology scans to NightHawk and its American-trained radiologists respond with detailed analysis, usually within 20 minutes or less.

"NightHawk's customer base continues to expand, and its full-year sales revenues surged by over 60% during 2005, tallying $64.1 million compared to $39.3 million in sales from 2004. The company's valuable business model has not been lost on the market, as it currently trades at a hefty forward P/E ratio of 37.5.

"This isn't a stock for the faint of heart, as it will surely see its ups and down in the quarters ahead. As with any company that is literally forging its own industry, NightHawk doesn't offer investors very clear forward visibility, and it's not possible to determine if or when its competitive advantages could become commoditized.

"However, for those willing to tolerate the stock's ups and downs in the short-term, NHWK shares offer an outstanding opportunity to capitalize on an emerging industry, which by all accounts should grow to become the dominant business model for the after-hours radiology industry in the years to come."

Disclaimer: Cory Janssen currently owns shares in the stock mentioned in this article. To see Cory's favorite conservative stock for 2007, click here.