ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,285,340, issued on April 29, was assigned to AXIOMED LLC (Burlington, Mass.).

"Artificial disk with sensors" was invented by Kingsley Chin (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.), Jeremy Crossgrove (Brookline, Mass.) and Jake Lubinski (Beverly, Mass.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A prosthetic disc can take the form of a sensing artificial disc that includes a resilient core and at least one sensor configured to sense one or more conditions within and/or experienced by the disc. The sensing artificial disc can serve as a replacement to a failed or injured disc between two vertebrae of a spine. The sensing artificial disc can include at least one element ...