US Patent Issued to Covidien on Oct. 7 for "Inventory systems and methods for detecting and counting potentially retained surgical items" (Colorado Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 8 -- United States Patent no. 12,433,711, issued on Oct. 7, was assigned to Covidien LP (Mansfield, Mass.).

"Inventory systems and methods for detecting and counting potentially retained surgical items" was invented by Donald W. Heckel (Thornton, Colo.) and Edward L. Brannan (Erie, Colo.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An inventory system configured for detecting and counting potentially retained surgical items within a body of a patient includes a signal generator which generates an energizing signal for a first RFID tag affixed to a secure package or the second RFID tag affixed to a surgical item, an antenna operably coupled to the signal generator, a processor, and a m...