An LED Surgical Headlight Camera System?

A good friend and emergency room doctor asked me one time – “can you design an LED high-output head-mounted fixture that I can use in the ER to look into areas of the body?”  My friend’s question came out of the fact that apparently the existing head-mounted illuminators used in hospitals and doctor’s offices across the world are not necessarily the most convenient of apparatus to use.  Most of them are also not made of LED sources, like this one:

Doesn’t this seem like a perfect opportunity for a high output cold white LED?

As I look at this image above that I got via a trade publication in the medical industry, I have to wonder what a high power source like Xenon is doing being used in an application like this when LED tech could easily be utilized.  LEDs are also being used in several facets of the medical industry, including some of the large medical tasklights found in operating rooms and examination rooms.

Looking at this design, I had to ask myself why an S-video connection and composite is being used to send camera data instead of something digital like DVI or HDMI.  Obviously there is no audio in this setup nor would there need to be.  My concern is detail – if you’re looking at parts of the body that need examining after the fact, wouldn’t the best idea be to have your device outputting something HD?  I’m probably looking at this medical technology and wondering how I could incorporate it into entertainment lighting or some effed up fascination like that.

My guess is that an LED source would make the cost of this device a hell of a lot less expensive, too.  It would certainly last a lot longer!

Don’t worry, Welch Allyn, I’m not picking on you!