Patent ID: 8831736

Claim:
An electric therapy system including a therapy device ( 10 ) having: a. a therapy device data communication interface ( 14 , 16 ) configured to perform a wireless bidirectional data transmission establishing a data link, the therapy device data communication interface ( 14 , 16 ) including: (1) an inductive data communication interface ( 14 ) configured to establish the data link wherein a wireless bidirectional data transmission of data packets occurs in an inductive data transmission mode via an alternating magnetic field, and (2) an electric data communication interface ( 16 ) configured to establish the data link wherein a wireless bidirectional data transmission of data packets occurs in an electric data transmission mode via an alternating electric field, the data packets containing one or more of: i. programming for the therapy device, and ii. patient data collected by the therapy device; b. a therapy device data communication control unit ( 12 ) configured to: (1) control the therapy device data communication interface ( 14 , 16 ) so that the data transmission by the therapy device data communication interface ( 14 , 16 ) takes place in one of the data transmission modes; (2) select one of the data transmission modes for use, the selection being based on one or more predefined selection criteria, and (3) change from one of the data transmission modes to another of the data transmission modes during the data link: (a) after transmission of some of the data packets, and (b) upon occurrence of an event corresponding to one of the selection criteria, so that the data link is not interrupted, and rather is continued in another of the data transmission modes.