Patent ID: 8848282

Claim:
A light-based medical diagnostic system, comprising: a pump source comprising a plurality of semiconductor diodes with pump beams; a multiplexer capable of combining the plurality of semiconductor diode pump beams and generating at least a multiplexed pump beam comprising one or more wavelengths; a first waveguide structure configured to receive at least a portion of the one or more wavelengths, wherein the first waveguide structure comprises at least in part a gain fiber and outputs a first optical beam; and a second waveguide structure configured to receive at least a portion of the first optical beam and to communicate at least the portion of the first optical beam to an output end of the second waveguide structure to form an output beam, wherein at least a portion of the output beam comprises at least one wavelength in the range of 1.7 microns or more; and a lens system configured to receive at least the portion of the output beam and to communicate at least the portion of the output beam through a patient's mouth onto a part of a patient's body comprising a patient's blood; wherein at least the portion of the output beam is adapted for use in medical diagnostics to measure a property of the patient's blood, wherein the medical diagnostics comprise a spectroscopic procedure comprising a differential measurement, wherein the differential measurement is based at least in part on a comparison of amplitudes at a plurality of associated wavelengths transmitted or reflected from the patient's blood.