System and method for triggering conditioning of the heart using the intrinsic heartbeat

An apparatus for stimulating a patient's heart comprising:

• a multiphase cardiac stimulus generator;
• one or more sensors;
• one or more electrodes implanted on, in, or proximate to at least one of an atrial chamber and a ventricular chamber of the heart;
• a memory, wherein the memory is configured for:
• storing data from the one or more sensors;
• storing rules;
• and
• storing waveform data;
• and
• a processor, wherein the processor in communication with the memory and configured to perform operations comprising:
• detecting, using the one or more sensors, an occurrence of an intrinsic beat of the heart;
• applying the rules to the sensor data to determine whether to deliver an electrical waveform to at least one of the one or more electrodes;
• instructing the multiphase cardiac stimulus generator to generate the electrical waveform from the stored waveform data when it is determined to deliver the electrical waveform to at least one of the one or more electrodes;
• and
• delivering the electrical waveform at timing determined from the detected intrinsic beat of the heart.