In cases where death has just occured, or will occur imminately, the body can be placed within a suspended animation, normally through Cryogenic Freezing. The progress of death or the disease is halted until such time as a treatment can be utilized to restore the patient to health. Sometimes this is also used to preserve passengers on long space flights when there is not enough life support on a ship to support a full crew the entire voyage.
[Battlestar Galactica, Babylon 5, others.]
Medical scanners are able to take life readings from a short distance away. This makes the doctors more effective, getting all the information from a physical and more, without having to touch the patient. At times the patient does not even need to know they are being scanned.
[Star Trek; Battlestar Galactica.]
These tanks are filled with a techno organic liquid. The patient is suspended within the tank, and hooked up to a breather so they do not drown. Some tanks are filled with oxygenated liquid that the patient can breath, so a breather is not necessary.
The liquid in the tanks are specialy designed to assist and radicly accelerate the healing process. The patient is suddenly well after a few hours or days instead of weeks or months.
[Earth:Final Conflict, the Bacta Tank from Star Wars, Dragonball Z, Starship Troopers CGI cartoon]