Patent ID: 8352038

Claim:
A method for configuring a medical device, comprising: setting a first device configuration of the medical device corresponding to a configuration definition stored in a memory of the medical device comprising both one allowable status field bit and one function status field bit corresponding to each of a plurality of medical device functions, the function status field bit indicating a current status of a respective medical device function as being enabled or disabled and the allowable status field bit indicating whether updates to the function status field bit of the respective medical device function are allowed or not allowed; interrogating the medical device using a first programmer configuration configured to update the first device configuration; automatically comparing the first programmer configuration and the first device configuration in response to the interrogating; and automatically setting a second device configuration of the medical device by updating the function status field bit for at least one of the plurality of medical device functions in response to the comparison of the first programmer configuration and the first device configuration if the allowable status field bit for the at least one of the plurality of medical device functions indicates updates to the respective function status field bit are allowed, wherein the updating comprises switching between an enabled and a disabled status.