Patent ID: 6993386

Claim:
A publicly accessible external defibrillator for automatically generating a generic cardiac therapy for a person suffering from a life threatening cardiac condition, said external defibrillator comprising; a first electrode adapted to be attached to said patient; a detector circuit coupled to said first electrode and adapted to detect a life threatening cardiac condition based on a physiological signal sensed through said electrode, said detector circuit detecting said cardiac condition using non-patient specific criteria; a microprocessor-based controller coupled to said detector circuit and adapted to generate a command in the presence of said life threatening condition; a pulse generator adapted to generate therapeutic pulses selected to a pulse generator adapted to generate therapeutic pulses selected to terminate said life threatening cardiac condition in response to said command, said pulse generator operating in at least one of an automated mode in which therapy is applied automatically to the patient and an advisory mode in which an indication is generated to indicate that therapy is available and can be applied; a self-test and diagnostic circuit adapted to run tests on said external defibrillator to determine if said external defibrillator is operational; and a communications module, said controller being adapted to send a message automatically to a remote location through said communication module when said life threatening condition is detected, said message indicating one of the occurrence and detection of said condition and the patient's location; wherein said detector circuit is adapted to detect intrinsic cardiac signals and said controller is adapted to automatically generate said command in synchronism with said intrinsic cardiac signals.