Patent ID: 8269634

Claim:
A monitoring system for a human patient including: an implanted medical device including: a first internal patient alerting sub-system capable of generating at least a first internal alarm signal; a first sensor configured to sense actuation of the first internal patient alerting sub-system; a second sensor for sensing data for calculating a medical condition of the human patient; a wireless communications system; a processor, the processor configured to detect abnormalities in the patient's medical condition, the processor further configured to actuate the first internal patient alerting sub-system following detection of abnormalities in the patient's medical condition, the processor also configured to perform an alarm test; the alarm test including both actuation of the first internal patient alerting sub-system for at least one test interval and measurement by the processor of the first internal alarm signal generated by the first internal patient alerting sub-system during the test interval, the processor further configured to detect at least one of sufficiency and insufficiency in the first internal alarm signal during the test interval; external equipment including wireless communication designed to receive signals from the implanted medical device; and, a secondary patient alerting sub-system capable of generating a second alarm signal, designed to notify the patient when insufficiency is detected in the first internal alarm signal.