Hand-held opto-diagnostic instrument system

Claim 1

A hand-held opto-diagnostic system for use within a conventional physician-patient examining distance not exceeding the manual reach of the doctor, the system comprising: (a) a hand-held, non-surgical, opto-diagnostic medical instrument, said instrument including a light source, an eyepiece, a direct view optical pathway for light generated by said light source, and a power supply for said light source; (b) a hand-held mechanical and optical adapter proportioned for selectable coupling to, and de-coupling from, said eyepiece of said instrument without modifications of said optical pathway thereof, (c) a beam splitter mechanically and optically coupled into said optical pathway to said adapter, said pathway originating from said instrument and extending into said beam splitter, a first optical output of said beam splitter includes said direct view optical pathway of said instrument, said path directed to a system eyepiece located within said conventional physical-patient examining distance thereof, and a second output of said beam splitter includes an optical pathway mechanically and optically coupled to an input to a video camera head coupled to a video camera; and (d) video monitoring and recording means opto-electronically coupled to an output of said video camera.