Patent ID: 8027727

Claim:
A system comprising: a therapy-providing implantable medical device (IMD), the IMD including a built-in active telemetry transceiver and a medical device antenna; a programmer adapted to adjust the programmed therapy provided by the IMD; a repeater device including: a first antenna adapted to wirelessly communicate with the antenna of the IMD; a first communication circuit electrically connected to the first antenna, the first communication circuit adapted to cause the first antenna to wirelessly communicate with the antenna of the IMD over a first channel; a second antenna adapted to wirelessly communicate with an antenna of the programmer; a second communication circuit electrically connected to the second antenna, the second communication circuit adapted to cause the second antenna to wirelessly communicate with the antenna of the programmer over a second channel different from the first channel; and a control circuit coupled to the first and second communication circuits, the control circuit adapted to enable and disable the first and second communication circuits, wherein the control circuit is adapted to enable the first communication circuit and disable the second communication circuit to receive an IMD-originated signal from the IMD and adapted to disable the first communication circuit and enable the second communication circuit to transmit the IMD-originated signal to the programmer; and wherein the control circuit is adapted to enable the second communication circuit and disable the first communication circuit to receive a programmer-originated signal from the programmer and adapted to disable the second communication circuit and enable the first communication circuit to transmit the programmer-originated signal to the IMD; and wherein the programmer is adapted to control the control circuit to disable the device to allow direct communications from the programmer to the IMD and from the IMD to the programmer.