Patent ID: 7386344

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: an implantable cardiac rhythm management device, the cardiac rhythm management device comprising: a heart signal sensing circuit to sense intrinsic electrical heart signals from a heart of a patient; a ventricular tachyarrhythmia/fibrillation detector circuit, operatively coupled to the heart signal sensing circuit, the ventricular tachyarrhythmia/fibrillation detector circuit operable to detect a ventricular tachyarrhythmia/fibrillation, wherein the ventricular tachyarrhythmia/fibrillation detector circuit has a sensitivity and a specificity of ventricular tachyarrhythmia/fibrillation detection, and wherein the ventricular tachyarrhythmia/fibrillation detector circuit is configured such that the specificity exceeds the sensitivity without regard to an operator skill level, and in which the ventricular tachyarrhythmia/fibrillation detector circuit includes one or more shock control modules to determine whether a patient should be shocked, wherein the one or more shock control modules are individually or collectively programmable by one or more parameters, and wherein the one or more parameters are factory programmed to one or more corresponding default values such that the specificity exceeds the sensitivity in a target patient population; a defibrillation shock circuit, coupled to the ventricular tachyarrhythmia/fibrillation detector circuit, the defibrillation shock circuit configured to deliver a defibrillation shock in response to the detected ventricular tachyarrhythmia/fibrillation; and a stimulation circuit, coupled to the heart signal sensing circuit, the stimulation circuit configured to deliver to the heart a stimulation at an energy level appropriate to evoke or assist in evoking a responsive heart contraction.