Patent ID: 8812110

Claim:
A heart stimulation system comprising: a memory; a control unit connected to said memory; said control unit configured to control operation of an implantable medical device with control parameters stored in said memory; said control parameters comprising parameters that may only be modified by a physician or other authorized personnel, and selected parameters comprising a subset of said control parameters with associated tuning ranges that are safe for a user to modify and that may also be modified by said physician or said other authorized personnel, wherein said physician or said other authorized personnel is not said user and wherein said implantable medical device is located within said user and not within said physician or said other authorized personnel; a data interface connected to said memory, wherein said data interface is configured to receive said control parameters and store said control parameters in said memory; an external device; a first user interface on said external device, wherein said first user interface is at least indirectly coupled to said data interface; and, wherein said first user interface on said external device is configured to allow said user to enter values for said selected parameters comprising the subset of said control parameters that are safe for said user to modify, and allow said user to only modify said selected parameters, not allow said user to modify said parameters that may only be modified by a physician or other authorized personnel who are not said user; and, accept night-to-day transition and day-to-night transition times, and assert an alarm on said external device to wake said user; and, a second user interface at least indirectly coupled to said external device; wherein said second user interface comprises restricted access to only allow said physician or other authorized personnel who are not said user to access said second user interface to modify said control parameters that may only be modified by a physician or other authorized personnel who are not said user; wherein said control parameters that may only be modified by said physician or other authorized personnel who are not said user include an AV delay interval, a daytime base stimulation rate, and a nighttime base stimulation rate; and, wherein the selected parameters that may be modified by said user and that may also be modified by said physician or said other authorized personnel comprise said night-to-day transition and said day-to-night transition times.