Method and apparatus for upgrading implantable medical device operating software

A medical system comprising:

• an implantable medical device including a local device memory for storing operating software comprised of one or more code segments and a controller for executing a therapy administration program defined by said operating software;
• an external programmer including local programmer memory and a controller for controlling information read from and written into said local programmer memory;
• telemetry means for supporting bidirectional communication between said medical device and said external programmer;
• and wherein
• said external programmer is operable to initiate a procedure for modifying said operating software stored in said local device memory, said procedure including means for initially freeing space in said local device memory by temporarily uploading data therefrom to said local programmer memory, means for downloading code segments from said local programmer memory to said space freed in said local device memory, means for validating each such downloaded code segment, and means for replacing a previously stored code segment with a validated code segment.

A medical system comprising:

• an implantable medical device having operating software stored in a local device memory and controller means normally operable to execute said operating software to administer a certain medical therapy;
• an external programmer configured to initiate an upgrade procedure to replace old code segments of said operating software with new code segments downloaded by said programmer to said medical device;
• means initially effective during said procedure for interrupting the normal operation of said medical device controller and for uploading event log information from said local device memory to said external programmer to free space in said local device memory;
• means for temporarily storing a downloaded code segment in said freed space in said local device memory;
• means for determining the validity of said temporarily stored code segment;
• means for replacing a code segment of said stored operating software in said local device memory with a validated code segment;
• means for downloading said previously uploaded event log information to restore said information in said local device memory;
• and
• means for resuming normal operation of said medical device.

A method of upgrading operating software stored in the local memory of an implantable medical device comprising:

• uploading stored information from said medical device local memory to an external processor to create free space in said memory;
• downloading code segments from said external processor for temporary storage in said local memory free space;
• determining whether each of said temporarily stored code segments is valid;
• storing each of said code segments determined to be valid in said medical device local memory in place of a previously stored code segment;
• and
• downloading to said medical device local memory said information previously uploaded to said external processor.

A method of modifying operating software stored in a Code portion of a local memory of an implantable medical device comprising:

• uploading information from a Log portion of said local memory to an external programmer to free space in said Log portion;
• downloading new operating software code segments from said external programmer for temporary storage in said Log portion;
• determining whether each of said new code segments temporarily stored in said Log portion is valid;
• transferring a software copying component from said Code portion to a Data portion of said local memory;
• and
• executing said software copying component from said Data portion to store code segments determined to be valid in said Code portion.