Patent ID: 7706877

Claim:
A patient controllable atrial shock therapy system, comprising: an implantable atrial shock therapy device including: an atrial arrhythmia detector for detecting an atrial arrhythmia event episode and for providing an atrial arrhythmia event status; an atrial cardioverter for providing atrial shock therapy; patient activation request detection means for detecting a patient activation request originating from external to the implantable device, wherein the patient activation request detection means includes a reed switch responsive to a magnetic field to operate the reed switch to provide the patient activation request; message generator means for generating a message indicating the atrial arrhythmia event status responsive to the detection of the patient activation request; and shock therapy control means for requesting and withholding the providing of atrial shock therapy in response to a duration of the detected patient activation request, wherein the shock therapy control means requests shock therapy in response to operation of the reed switch by the magnetic field for greater than a selected duration and withholds shock therapy in response to operation of the reed switch by the magnetic field for less than the selected duration.