Abstract: An implantable device programmer includes a variety of features for allowing a clinician to perform an automated and customized follow-up examination of a patient having an implanted cardiac implantable device, the implantable device being of the type which captures and stores various types of diagnostic data for subsequent retrieval and evaluation. A custom protocol feature of the programmer allows the clinician pre-specify and then semi-automatically follow an ordered sequence of protocol steps, each protocol step involving the interrogation of the implantable device and the display by the programmer of associated implantable device data (such as a heart rate histogram, or the results of a ventricular capture test). When the clinician initiates a custom protocol, the programmer automatically retrieves all of the diagnostic data records of the protocol in the protocol order.

Abstract: A monitoring and/or programming device communicates with a cardiac stimulation device, such as a pacemaker, which is operatively implanted within a patient. Communication between the programmer and cardiac device occurs over a radio frequency (RF) telemetry link. During a monitoring and/or programming procedure, data is transmitted over the RF telemetry link between the programming device and the cardiac device. Parameters indicating the quality of the RF telemetry link are continuously measured, evaluated and formatted for display to an operator of the programming device.