Patent ID: 7558631

Claim:
A method for stimulating cardiac tissue, said method comprising: placing a pacing lead to be in contact with a heart of a patient at a first cardiac stimulation site on a right side of the heart, implanting a leadless receiver-stimulator at a second cardiac stimulation site in a left ventricle of the heart, connecting the pacing lead to an external pacemaker, generating an electrical pacing pulse from the external pacemaker and applying the electrical pacing pulse to the pacing lead, wherein said electrical pacing pulse delivers cardiac stimulation energy to the first cardiac stimulation site, detecting the electrical pacing pulse using an externally located acoustic energy generator; upon detecting the pacing pulse, generating acoustic energy using the externally located acoustic energy generator that is coupled to the patient; and receiving said acoustic energy by the leadless receiver stimulator at the second cardiac stimulation site, wherein said acoustic energy is converted into cardiac stimulation energy based on both energy and signal information included in the generated acoustic energy.