The new color television camera in Operating Room #6 Walter Reed Army Hospital is equipped with a number of lenses of varying focal length. The camera looks at the surface of a mirror that is suspended at an angle above the operation. The center of the operating light is always focused on the operating field. November 14, 1957. (Original caption) Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 521403

Lt. Colonel Helmuth Sprinz, Surgical Pathologist, Walter Reed Army Hospital,operates the completely new color TV microscope, designed by Walter Reed and RCA technicians. Light passes through the microscope and engages a beam splitter which directs a sufficient amount of light to the microscopist’seye permitting him to examine suspect tissue just as though television was not involved. The remaining amount of light passes directly through the beam splitter and is reflected through a prism into a three-vidicon color television of special design. The whole assembly is mounted on an instrumentation table which may be easily wheeled into many different laboratories, classrooms and conference rooms. With this system it is possible for the microscopist to see a parallax corrected field with any number of students in as many different locations as can be reached by the Television Division’s distribution system. 14 November 1957.(Original caption)
Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, SC 521401

Cover from the brochure for the new color TV camera used in teaching to demonstrate surgical procedures.
Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, AFIP History Collection
from http://www.bordeninstitute.army.mil/other_pub/centennial/decade5GPO.pdf

This picture shows an RCA color TV camera installation at at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. in the 1955-56 period. This system was used to televise operations for instructional purposes. The round object in the center is a high-intensity lighting fixture with an opening in the center. The mirror above the lamp allowed the TV camera to focus on the operation as it proceeded. This picture was probably taken just after the installation was completed. It might be safely assumed that the patients were not expected to lie on the floor.

http://uv201.com/Photo%20Pages/rca_promotional.htm