Compact imaging instrument system

A compact medical diagnostic instrument comprising:

• a modified hand-held photographic digital camera having a compact housing;
• at least one diagnostic instrument head releasably attachable to the exterior of said housing of said camera, which has been retrofitted to allow selective attachment of said at least one instrument head, said at least one instrument head containing an optical system;
• an electronic image sensor disposed within one of said camera housing and said at least one instrument head for capturing at least one image of interest which has been directed to said electronic image sensor by said optical system;
• a display integral with said camera housing for displaying at least one image captured by said electronic image sensor;
• multi-media data storage means within said hand-held digital camera for storing multiple forms of data other than image data selectively with said captured image data and
• transmitting means including at least one first electrical contact disposed in said instrument housing connected to a contained power source, said at least one instrument head including at least one second electrical contact for engaging said first electrical contact when said at least one instrument head selectively attached in locking engagement to the exterior of said housing.

A record management system comprising:

• a medical diagnostic instrument including a modified hand-held photographic digital camera and a plurality of interchangeable instrument heads, each of said instrument heads being releasably attachable to a(retrofitted exterior of said modified photographic digital camera and having an optical system for directing an image onto an electronic image sensor disposed in one of said digital camera and said instrument heads, said instrument heads being one of an otoscopic instrument head, a skin surface microscope head, a magnifying instrument head and a general viewing instrument head,
• said instrument further including an integral display for displaying at least one directed image, and data capture and storage means disposed in said housing for digitally capturing and storing audio and video data;
• and
• means for transferring digitally stored data between said diagnostic instrument to at least one processor, said at least one processor including means for converting audio data stored by said camera into text data, and for organizing data transferred from said instrument including said converted text data into a record format.

A compact imaging instrument capable of performing multiple examination tasks comprising:

• a modified hand-held grippable photographic digital camera having contained data capturing means for capturing video data and at least one other form of data including audio data and data storage means for digitally storing captured video and audio data within a modified hand-held camera body;
• and
• a plurality of instrument heads, each of said instrument heads having a contained optical system;
• and in which each of said instrument heads and said modified camera body include:
• mounting means for interchangeably and releasably mounting each of said plurality of instrument heads to said modified camera body so as to align the optical system of each said instrument head to the data capturing means of said camera when an instrument head is selectively attached to the modified hand-held photogaphic digital camera.