Intra-body device communication with redundant message transmission

A medical system for sensing and regulating cardiac activity of a patient, the medical system comprising:

• an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) configured to sense electrical cardiac activity of a patient's heart;
• a leadless cardiac pacemaker (LCP) configured to be disposable within a chamber of the patient's heart;
• wherein the ICD comprises:
• a housing;
• a plurality of electrodes;
• an ICD controller housed by the housing of the ICD and operably coupled to the plurality of electrodes of the ICD, the SICD controller configured to sense cardiac electrical activity via two or more of the plurality of electrodes of the ICD;
• the ICD controller further configured to analyze the sensed cardiac electrical activity and to make a determination as to whether to instruct the LCP to provide a therapy to the patient's heart;
• wherein, when the ICD controller makes a determination to instruct the LCP to provide the therapy to the patient's heart, the ICD controller is configured to transmit a plurality of transmissions of an instruction resulting in transmission of at least one redundant transmission of the instruction;
• wherein the LCP comprises:
• a housing;
• a plurality of electrodes exposed external to the housing of the LCP;
• an LCP controller housed by the housing of the LCP and operably coupled to the plurality of electrodes of the LCP, the LCP controller configured to:
• generate and deliver pacing pulses via two or more of the plurality of electrodes of the LCP;
• receive cardiac signals via two or more of the plurality of electrodes of the LCP;
• and
• wherein the LCP controller is further configured to receive at least one of the plurality of transmissions of the instruction transmitted by the ICD via two or more of the plurality of electrodes of the LCP, and when more than one of the plurality of transmissions of the instruction are successfully received by the LCP controller, the LCP controller is configured to treat the more than one transmissions of the instruction as a single copy of the instruction, thereby ignoring additional successfully received redundant transmissions of the instruction and only executing the single copy of the instruction and not each of the plurality of transmissions of the instruction.

A method comprising:

• receiving a signal indicative of cardiac activity at a first IMD;
• analyzing the signal to determine whether to transmit an instruction;
• when it is determined to transmit the instruction, transmitting a plurality of transmissions of the instruction by the first IMD, resulting in transmission of at least one redundant transmission of the instruction;
• receiving by a second IMD at least one of the plurality of transmissions of the instruction transmitted by the first IMD, and when more than one of the plurality of transmissions of the instruction are successfully received by the second IMD, treating the more than one successfully received transmission of the instruction as a single copy of the instruction, thereby ignoring additional successfully received redundant transmissions of the instruction;
• and
• executing the received instruction by the second IMD.