ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,251,264, issued on March 18, was assigned to Olympus Medical Systems Corp. (Tokyo).
"Real-time sampling device" was invented by Christopher Ralph (Woodinville, Wash.) and Jason T. Panzenbeck (Redmond, Wash.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An elongated access device used in a medical system. The elongated access device slidably receives a medical tool and an ultrasound probe. The elongated access device includes a sheath and an intraluminal tip attached to the distal end of the sheath. The intraluminal tip includes ramp and nose donuts being spaced apart from one another and configured to be attached to one or more elongated sleeves. One ...