Techniques are disclosed for detecting arrhythmia episodes for a patient. A medical device may receive one or more sensor values indicative of motion of a patient. The medical device may determine, based at least in part on the one or more sensor values, an activity level of the patient. The medical device may determine a heart rate threshold for triggering detection of an arrhythmia episode based at least in part on the activity level of the patient. The medical device may determine whether to trigger detection of the arrhythmia episode for the patient based at least in part on comparing a heart rate of the patient with the heart rate threshold. The medical device may, in response to triggering detection of the arrhythmia episode, collect information associated with the arrhythmia episode.

Systems, devices, and methods for monitoring for atrial capture are disclosed. Such a method, for use within an implantable system including an atrial leadless pacemaker (aLP) and a ventricular leadless pacemaker (vLP), includes storing within a memory of the vLP a paced atrial activation morphology template corresponding to far-field atrial signal components expected to be present in a vEGM sensed by the vLP when an atrial pacing pulse delivered by the aLP captures atrial tissue. The vLP senses a vEGM and compares a morphology of a portion of the sensed vEGM to the paced atrial activation morphology template to determine whether a match therebetween is detected. Additionally, the vLP determines whether atrial capture occurred or failed to occur (responsive to an atrial pacing pulse), based on whether the vLP detects a match between the morphology of a portion of the sensed vEGM and the paced atrial activation morphology template.

A system and methods of maintaining communication with a medical device for exchange of information, instructions, and programs, in a highly reliable manner. Apparatus and methods for accomplishing this task include: 1) The inclusion of a locating device in the system, in close proximity to an implanted device, but which does not drain the implanted device battery. 2) The use of motion detection and global positioning system devices to locate elements within a communicating system for the medical device; 3) The assessment of received signal quality by elements of the system; 4) The use of a notification system for a device user who is moving out of range of communications; and 5) Documenting the absolute and functional integrity of instructions received by the medical device. A method of assuring the identification of communication participants is presented.

A method for remote programming a therapy device for neurostimulation comprises: generating a stimulation program for the therapy device by means of a clinician programmer; transferring the stimulation program to a patient programmer; loading the stimulation program on the therapy device from the patient programmer; and increasing a stimulation amplitude of the stimulation program by means of the patient programmer. An initial stimulation amplitude setting of the stimulation program is limited to a minimal dose amplitude.

A wearable cardioverter defibrillator (WCD) (10) and method (60) comprise a set of electrodes (12) for placement on a subject (14), a mechanism for electrically engaging (16) the set of electrodes to the subject's skin, and at least one non-invasive physiologic sensor (18, 20) configured for placement on the subject. A controller (24) monitors an output of the non-invasive physiologic sensor (18, 20) for detecting a change in a health parameter of the subject being indicative of one or more of a change in subject condition that may be a precursor to potential cardiac arrhythmia or a simultaneously occurring cardiac arrhythmia. Responsive to detecting the change, the controller (24) activates an alarm (26) for requesting a response from the subject (14) within a predetermined time. Responsive to receiving the subject's response within the predetermined time, the controller (24) inhibits the mechanism (16) from electrically engaging the set of electrodes (12) to the subject's skin. Responsive to not receiving the subject's response, the controller (24) initiates the mechanism (16) for electrically engaging the set of electrodes (12) to the subject's skin.

Example electronic devices, including but not limited to implantable medical devices, and methods employing dynamic announcing for creation of wireless communication connections are disclosed herein. In an example, an electronic device includes a wireless communication interface to transmit announcement signals for creating a wireless communication connection with the external device. The electronic device also includes a sensor to detect a characteristic of an environment external to the electronic device, and a control circuit including an announcement timing control module to dynamically control timing of the announcement signals based on the detected characteristic.

Apparatus and methods for the management and safety monitoring of temporary cardiac pacing devices adapted to monitor a cardiac pacing device, the apparatus comprising; electrical connections with the heart and with the pacing device; a signal acquisition module adapted to acquire via the electrical connections cardiac signals indicative of cardiac operation, pacing impulses emitted by the pacing device, evoked signals emitted from the heart in response to the pacing impulses, and any unidentified noise signals; a processor adapted to receive from the signal acquisition module and to analyse the cardiac and evoked signals, the pacing impulses and any noise signals; a data store, and a display, wherein the processor is adapted to: i. establish a base level operation of the heart and pacing device and to store the associated quality, size and/or timing values of the cardiac and evoked signals and the pacing impulses in the date store; ii, receive instantaneous values of quality, size and/or timing values of the cardiac and evoked signals and the pacing impulses and to cause the display to show these values; iii. compare the instantaneous values against the values in the data store to establish differences therebetween; iv. analyse; a, any noise signal received, b. the instantaneous values received at step ii above, and c. any difference(s) at step iii above in terms of its/their quality, size and timing, and v, raise an alarm in the event a noise signal occurs and/or no evoked signal is received,

Cochlear implant systems can include a cochlear electrode, a stimulator in electrical communication with the cochlear electrode, a sensor configured to receive a stimulus signal and generate an input signal based on the received stimulus signal, and a signal processor in communication with the stimulator and the sensor. The signal processor can include an analog filtering stage configured to generate an analog filtered signal from a received input signal and a digital filtering stage configured to generate a digitally filtered signal from the analog filtered signal. The analog filtering stage and digital filtering stage can be used to normalize the frequency response of the digitally filtered signal with respect to the stimulus signal.

A method for determining and responding in real-time to an increased risk of death relating to a patient with epilepsy is provided. The method includes receiving cardiac data and determining a cardiac index based upon the cardiac data. The method includes determining an increased risk of death associated with epilepsy if the indices are extreme, issuing a warning of the increased risk of death and logging information related to the increased risk of death. Also presented is a second method for determining and responding in real-time to an increased risk of death relating to a patient with epilepsy comprising receiving at least one of arousal data, responsiveness data or awareness data and determining an arousal index, a responsiveness index or an awareness index, where the indices are based on arousal data, responsiveness data or awareness data respectively. The second method includes determining an increased risk of death related to epilepsy if indices are extreme values, issuing a warning of the increased risk of death and logging information related to the increased risk of death. A computer readable program storage device is also provided. Also provided is a method for receiving body data, determining a cardiac, an arousal, a responsiveness, or a kinetic index, determining an increased or increasing risk of death over a first time window relating to a patient with epilepsy and issuing a warning and logging relevant information.

Cochlear implant systems can include a signal processor, an implantable battery and/or communication module, and a plurality of conductors coupling the implantable battery and/or communication module and the signal processor. The implantable battery and/or communication module can communicate data and deliver electrical power to the signal processor via the plurality of conductors. The implantable battery and/or communication module can be configured to perform characterization process to determine one or more characteristics of one or more such conductors. Characterization processes can include determining an impedance between two conductors as a function of frequency, determining whether a conductor is intact, and determining an impedance of a given conductor. Some characterization processes include grounding one or more conductors.