Patent ID: 7904153

Claim:
An implantable medical device system, comprising: a plurality of electrodes positioned at a first subcutaneous location; at least one electrode positioned at a second subcutaneous location, wherein the plurality of electrodes at the first location and the electrode at the second location form multiple sensing vectors; a sensing module for receiving ECG signals from the multiple sensing vectors; and a control module configured to select a subset of the multiple sensing vectors, determine a signal quality parameter corresponding to each of the sensing vectors of the subset, determine whether each of the sensing vectors of the subset is acceptable in response to the determined signal quality parameter, and select at least one sensing vector for heart rhythm monitoring from the multiple sensing vectors in response to at least one of the subset sensing vectors being acceptable; wherein the subset of sensing vectors includes only one vector that includes the electrode positioned at the second location; wherein determining whether each of the sensing vectors of the subset is acceptable comprises comparing the signal quality parameter to a threshold requirement, wherein selecting at least one sensing vector for heart rhythm monitoring comprises: computing an acceptability index as a weighted function of a first signal quality parameter and a second signal quality parameter for each of the sensing vectors determined to be acceptable; comparing the computed acceptability indices; and selecting the at least one sensing vector for heart rhythm monitoring in response to the comparison of the computed acceptability indices.