Patent ID: 7460911

Claim:
A system for sequentially activating a plurality of distinct neural pathways in a patient's body, said system comprising: a first set of one or more discrete implantable devices suitable for placement proximate to a first neural pathway for stimulating the first neural pathway; a second set of one or more discrete implantable devices suitable for placement proximate to a second neural pathway for stimulating the second neural pathway; wherein each of said discrete implantable devices is contained within a sealed elongate housing having an axial dimension of less than 60 mm and a lateral dimension of less than 6 mm and includes at least two electrodes integral with and on opposing ends of said housing, whereby said housings are suitable for injection into the patient's body and said discrete implantable devices are configured for affecting at least one neural pathway of the patient's body via said electrodes in response to first communication/control circuitry mounted within each said housing and responsive to a unique predefined identification address for each of said discrete implantable devices; a system controller having second communication/control circuitry configured for wireless communication with said first communication/control circuitry within each of said discrete implantable devices; wherein following a first activation sequence of said first neural pathway transmitted from said system controller to said first set of one or more discrete implantable devices, said system controller additionally transmits a temporally displaced, by a predetermined delay, second activation sequence to said second set of one or more discrete implantable devices; and a position sensor in communication with said system controller for determining the relative position of at least two portions of the patients body; and wherein said temporal displacement between transmitting said first and second activation sequences to said first and second sets of one or more discrete implantable devices is determined at least in part according to information communicated from said position sensor.