Patent ID: 7776031

Claim:
A method for providing a drug therapy in an automatic drug therapy delivery system, the method comprising: (a) implanting at least one implantable pump into a patient; (b) programming a dose infusion characteristic value into a programmable memory location using a radio frequency signal, the dose infusion characteristic value selected from the group consisting of a base rate drug flow, a maximum allowable dose for a predetermined period of time, a minimum allowable dose for a predetermined period of time, a patient activation request, drug monitoring delivery data, a rolling average rate limit for a predetermined period of time, a nominal dosage rate, and a minimum time interval between bolus requests; (c) delivering using the at least one implantable pump, in response to a patient originated stimulus, a bolus of a first drug to the patient in response to an input signal received by a programmable controller upon the determination of the programmable controller that the bolus is compliant with the dose infusion characteristic; (d) determining a first amount of the first drug and a second amount of a second drug delivered to the patient; (e) determining whether there exists a risk of overdosage or underdosage of the drug therapy; (f) if a risk of overdosage or underdosage is determined, notifying the patient; (g) sensing an efficacy of a treatment based on the first drug and the second drug; and (h) determining a first alternative dosage of the first drug and a second alternative dosage of the second drug from the sensed efficacy.