Patent ID: 6450172
Filing Date: 2002-09-17
Classification: A61N

Abstract:
A communication system for communicating implantable medical device information from an implantable medical device through a patient's body to a radio receiver external to the patient's body comprising:a storage and playback circuit having a plurality of audio drive signals recorded as human understandable voice statements corresponding to medical device operational characteristics, the audio drive signals being recorded at a corresponding plurality of addressable storage locations; a radio frequency transmitter to broadcast radio frequency signals modulated by audio drive signals retrieved from the storage and playback circuit, the modulated broadcast radio frequency signals being broadcast outside the patient's body; an address generation circuit to select and apply an address to the storage and playback circuit to retrieve a particular audio drive signal to be provided to the radio frequency transmitter; a timing control circuit coupled to the address generation circuit to generate commands for the address generation circuit to identify a particular audio drive signal to be retrieved from the storage and playback; and a radio receiver located outside the patient's body to receive and demodulate the modulated broadcast radio frequency signals to reproduce the human understandable voice statement.