Patent ID: 8140161

Claim:
A medical system comprising: an implantable medical device configured for implantation in a subject, said implantable medical device comprising a receiver; an external programmer device configured for extracorporeal communication with said implantable medical device in the subject, said external programmer device comprising a transmitter that establishes a wireless communication link with said receiver of said implantable medical device; a link quality monitoring circuit in said external programmer configured to determine a link quality of said communication link during a communication session between said external programmer device and said implantable medical device; a link quality parameter calculation unit, located in either said external programmer or said implantable medical device, configured to calculate a link quality parameter that represents a quality of said communication link in said communication session; and said link quality monitoring circuit being configured to instruct said transmitter of said external programmer to reduce a signal power of a signal transmitted to said receiver from an initial signal power level according to a predetermined signal power adjusting protocol, and to obtain said link quality parameter from said link quality parameter calculation unit, and to determine a present link quality using said at least one link quality parameter, and to instruct said transmitter to adjust the reduced signal power level dependent on said present link quality and said signal power adjusting protocol, and to instruct said transmitter to return to said initial signal power level if said link quality parameter satisfies a first set of predetermined conditions.