Patent ID: 8818521

Claim:
An implantable medical device ( 10 ), comprising: a bidirectional wireless interface ( 18 ); a magnetic interface ( 16 ) configured to activate said bidirectional wireless interface via a unidirectional inductive activation mechanism; a control unit ( 20 ) connected to the bidirectional wireless interface ( 18 ) wherein the control unit ( 20 ) is further connected to the magnetic interface ( 16 ); wherein the bidirectional wireless interface ( 18 ) is configured to transmit data bidirectionally and wirelessly via an alternating electric field between the implantable medical device and an external device; wherein the bidirectional wireless interface ( 18 ) may assume at least one OFF state and one ON state, such that wireless data transmission is possible only in the one ON state and wherein the bidirectional wireless interface ( 18 ) in the at least one OFF state requires less energy than the one ON state or no energy; wherein the magnetic interface ( 16 ) is configured to unidirectionally communicate with said external device to receive control signals transmitted via an alternating magnetic field from the external device without transmission of information over said magnetic interface to said external device to implement said unidirectional inductive activation mechanism; wherein the magnetic interface ( 16 ) is further configured to receive a data transmission start signal and to process the data transmission start signal, such that the magnetic interface ( 16 ) or the control unit ( 20 ) generates a wireless interface activation signal in response to reception of the data transmission start signal; wherein the bidirectional wireless interface ( 18 ) is connected at least indirectly to the magnetic interface ( 16 ); wherein the bidirectional wireless interface ( 18 ) is configured to switch from the at least one OFF state to the one ON state in response to the wireless interface activation signal; wherein the magnetic interface ( 16 ) or the control unit ( 20 ) is configured to generate the wireless interface activation signal after the data transmission start signal is received only if the data transmission start signal received via the magnetic interface contains a device-specific identifier for a specific implantable medical device; wherein the external device is configured to assign a response time to the data transmission start signal; and, wherein the implantable medical device is configured to extract a response time identifier from the data transmission start signal identifying the response time, wherein the response time is a point in time at which the implantable device generates the wireless interface activation signal; extract the device-specific identifier; and, generate the wireless interface activation signal only when the response time defined by the response time identifier has been reached.