System and method for determining safety alert conditions for implantable medical devices

• US 6,327,501 B1
• Filed: 11/02/1999
• Issued: 12/04/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Pacesetter Incorporated (Abbott Laboratories Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Pacesetter Incorporated (Abbott Laboratories Incorporated)
• Inventors: Levine, Paul A., Schwartz, Allan R., Mann, Brian M., Wilkoff, Bruce L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kamm, William E.
• Application Number:
  US09/432,918
• Time in Patent Office: 763 Days
• Field of Search: 607/1, 607/27, 607/28, 607/29, 607/31, 607/34, 607/63
• US Class Current: 607/27
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/37254 Pacemaker or defibrillator security, e.g. to prevent or inhibit programming alterations by hackers or unauthorised individuals
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/37258 Alerting the patient
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation

Abstract

A system and method for identifying and displaying safety alert advisories. The system automatically performs a comparison of identification data with a safety alert advisory. The system stores identification data in a plurality of dedicated fields. Each of dedicated fields contains information related to the patient. Upon the telemetric retrieval of the data by an external programmer, the external programmer automatically cross-correlates the data in the dedicated fields with the safety alert advisories. Upon identification of a match between the data and one of the safety alert advisories, the identified safety alert advisory is displayed to a medical practitioner. In addition, the system provides a dedicated memory to store an advisory flag. The advisory flag is marked when the programmer identifies a safety alert condition that is relevant to one of the dedicated fields. When a subsequent external programmer retrieves the data from the dedicated fields, the external programmer can notify the medical practitioner that a safety alert advisory exists even though the safety alert advisory was never directly input into the subsequent external programmer.

Claims

1. A system for advising a user of safety alerts corresponding to an implantable medical device system, the system comprising:

an implantable medical device system comprising at least one component, the implantable medical device system including;

a device memory for storing identification information for the at least one component; and

a communication device for transmitting the identification information; and

an external programmer for communicating with the implantable medical device system, the external programmer including;

a local memory for storing safety alert information to identify safety alerts for at least one component of the implantable medical device system;

a communication device for receiving the identification information from the implantable medical device system via the communication device of the implantable medical device system;

a processor for comparing the safety alert information stored in the local memory to the identification data received from the implantable medical device system to determine the identity of any components corresponding to the safety alert information; and

a display for displaying to a user the identity of any components of the implantable medical device system corresponding to the safety alert information which were identified by the processor.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the implantable medical device system is a cardiac stimulation system.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the implantable medical device system is comprised of a plurality of components and the device memory stores identification information for a plurality of the components in the implantable medical device system.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the implantable medical device system is comprised of a pacemaker and at least one lead.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the implantable medical device system is comprised of a cardioverter/defibrillator and at least one lead.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein the device memory defines a data structure comprised of a plurality of elements each of which is configured to store the identity of one of the components of the implantable medical device system.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the device memory data structure contains a flag for identifying the correspondence of a safety alert to a particular one of the components of the implantable medical device system.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the device memory data structure contains a time stamp for identifying the time that the correspondence of a safety alert to a particular one of the components of the implantable medical device system was determined.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the external programmer includes means for receiving the safety alert information for storage in the local memory.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the means for receiving the safety alert information comprises an interface to a communication link.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the means for receiving the safety alert information comprises an interface to a transportable media.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the means for receiving the safety alert information comprises a user interface for enabling a user to manually enter safety alert information to the local memory.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the local memory defines a data structure for the safety alerts and its corresponding component identification.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the device memory additionally includes the capability to store patient complication data.