Patent ID: 7505869

Claim:
A system for providing treatment therapy to a patient comprising in combination: (a) an implantable drug delivery device comprising: (i) a housing; (ii) at least one drug reservoir within the housing and each configured to contain at least one drug; (iii) a flow control module configured to control a flow of drug from the drug reservoir through an infusion port; (iv) electronics coupled to the flow control module and configured to adjust the flow of drug with the flow control module; (v) a telemetry module coupled to the electronics and configured to provide bi-directional communication between the delivery device and an external programmer; and (vi) a nonconformance monitor module coupled to the electronics, the nonconformance monitor module configured to monitor a pump outlet pressure and to generate pump performance data that includes the pump outlet pressure; and (b) an external programmer comprising: (i) a memory having stored therein pump performance acquisition instructions; (ii) a telemetry module configured to provide bi-directional communication between the external programmer and the implantable drug delivery device and to provide the pump performance acquisition instructions to the implantable drug delivery device and configured to receive pump performance data from the implantable drug delivery device; and (iii) a nonconformance management module stored in the memory, the nonconformance management module configured to determine whether the pump is conforming to performance requirements, based upon the pump performance data from the nonconformance monitor module, and to determine what action should be taken if non-conformance is determined.