Patent ID: 8290589

Claim:
A telemetry system for an implantable medical device and an external device, comprising: an antenna, an RF transceiver, and a controller incorporated into each of the implantable and external devices, wherein the RF transceiver is interfaced to the controller in the implantable device to enable the RF transmitter and receiver to be powered up or down; wherein the implantable device and external device are programmed with a real-time data transfer protocol in which real-time data collected by the implantable device is transmitted to the external device in response to periodic polling requests by the external device; a wakeup timer incorporated into the implantable device; and, wherein the implantable device is programmed to power down its RF transceiver for a predetermined time interval as measured by the wakeup timer upon receipt of a sleep command transmitted from the external device between polling requests, wherein the predetermined interval is communicated to the implantable device by the external device and is determined by the external device according to the type of real-time data being collected by the implantable device.