Patent ID: 8005541

Claim:
A cardiac rhythm management (CRM) system, comprising: an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) including: a defibrillation circuit to deliver defibrillation shock pulses each having an amount of energy programmed to a shock pulse energy level, the defibrillation circuit providing for a programmable ICD energy level being a maximum energy level up to which the shock pulse energy level is programmable; and an energy level control module coupled to the defibrillation circuit, the energy level control module adapted to control the ICD energy level using one or more programming parameters, wherein the ICD has an energy efficiency that is increased by decreasing a difference between the ICD energy level and the shock pulse energy level; and an external system communicatively coupled to the ICD, the external system including: a user interface including: a user input device adapted to receive an energy level parameter specifying the ICD energy level; and a presentation device adapted to visually present one or more estimated ICD performance parameters each being a function of the ICD energy level; an ICD energy level programming module coupled to the user interface, the ICD energy level programming module adapted to produce the one or more programming parameters using the received energy level parameter; and an ICD performance estimation module coupled to the user interface, the ICD performance estimation module adapted to produce the one or more estimated ICD performance parameters using the received energy level parameter.