Patent 7704282 was granted and assigned to DePuy on April, 2010 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
An orthopaedic element has an information storage portion. A transmitter portion and an internal power source portion may be associated with the body of the orthopaedic element. Information, such as data related to the orthopaedic element, patient or caregiver can be stored in the information storage portion. The transmitter portion is coupled to the information storage portion and the internal power source portion. The stored information is selectively transmitted to an external receiver and data interpretation device.