Patent ID: 8036739

Claim:
A system comprising: an implantable medical device, comprising: an electrical energy delivery circuit; an intrinsic electrical signal sensing circuit configured to sense an intrinsic electrical signal; and at least one terminal, configured to couple the electrical energy delivery circuit and the intrinsic electrical signal sensing circuit to at least one tissue site; and an implantable or external validation module, coupled to the electrical energy delivery circuit and the intrinsic electrical signal sensing circuit, wherein the validation module is configured to: distinguish between a cardiac tissue type and a neural tissue type at the least one tissue site to determine at least one indication of tissue type that is capable of distinguishing a cardiac tissue type from a neural tissue type at the at least one tissue site using the intrinsic electrical signal; in response to the distinguishing, automatically enable one of (1) cardiac pacing electrical energy delivery by the electrical energy delivery circuit to the at least one tissue site when the at least one indication of the tissue type corresponds to a cardiac tissue type for the electrical energy delivery, or (2) neurostimulation electrical energy delivery by the electrical energy delivery circuit to the at least one tissue site when the at least one indication of the tissue type corresponds to a neural tissue type for the electrical energy delivery; and in response to the distinguishing, automatically inhibit the other one of (1) cardiac pacing electrical energy delivery by the electrical energy delivery circuit to the at least one tissue site when the at least one indication of the tissue type does not correspond to the cardiac tissue type for the electrical energy delivery, or (2) neurostimulation electrical energy delivery by the electrical energy delivery circuit when the at least one indication of the tissue type does not correspond to the neural tissue type for the electrical energy delivery.