Patent ID: 8442841

Claim:
A method comprising: measuring a gastric emptying rate of the patient; determining whether the gastric emptying rate exceeds a gastric emptying rate threshold in order to determine whether the patient is in (a) a first population who are likely to derive substantial benefit from implantation of an electrical stimulation treatment device or (b) a second population who are not likely to derive substantial benefit from the implantation; and responsively to determining that the gastric emptying rate does exceed the gastric emptying rate threshold; determining that the patient (a) is in the first population, and (b) is not in the second population; implanting the electrical stimulation treatment device in the patient; and activating the electrical stimulation treatment device to treat the patient by applying electrical stimulation to the patient, wherein the substantial benefit includes at least one benefit, following activation of the electrical stimulation treatment device, selected from the group consisting of; at least a threshold amount of weight loss, and improved control of blood sugar.