Patent ID: 8290574

Claim:
A method for configuring a cardiac monitoring system for detection of a predetermined arrhythmia of an ambulatory patient, the cardiac monitoring system including a battery powered ECG monitor worn by the patient and having a patient ECG signal processor, arrhythmia detector, and a wireless transceiver for sending status messages and receiving arrhythmia detector configuration information, the cardiac monitoring system further including a cellphone handset having cellphone electronics operable for communication with a monitoring center over a cellular network, a transceiver for wirelessly communicating with the ECG monitor, and a controller operable to cause the cellphone handset to forward status messages received from the ECG monitor to the monitoring center and to forward to the ECG monitor configuration information received from the monitoring center, the method comprising: determining, prior to cardiac monitoring of a patient, a parameter of a predetermined arrhythmia which is to be detected and storing the parameter in a configuration file at the monitoring center; attaching the ECG monitor to the patient to begin ECG monitoring; sending a status message from the ECG monitor to the monitoring center in response to the commencement of ECG monitoring; responding to the status message by sending the configuration file to the ECG monitor; and using the configuration file to configure the arrhythmia detector.