fig1 is a schematic view of a patient 10 having treatment device 14 implanted within the patient &# 39 ; s body . implantable treatment device 14 is programmable through a telemetry link from programmer 20 , which is coupled via a conductor 22 to a radio frequency antenna 24 . treatment device 14 could be , but is not limited to being , a pump for infusing medicaments into a patient &# 39 ; s body or an electrical nerve stimulator for stimulating a patient &# 39 ; s nervous system . the fundamental building block for specifying various treatment protocols according to this invention is referred to as a treatment step . treatment steps may be specified to start after a predetermined delay relative to downlinking of the treatment protocol to the implanted device or relative to completion of the preceding treatment step or any other suitable point in time . in the alternative , a treatment step may have a specified absolute start time and / or date . a treatment step according to this invention will include a treatment rate or dose and a treatment duration . a treatment step could also specify whether or not a patient - activated bolus may overlay the treatment step and whether , and if so , how much , of a patient - activated rate adjustment is allowed during the treatment step . treatment steps according to this invention are typically specified as executing one time . by grouping one or more treatment steps into a treatment - step group , the group of one or more treatment steps can be specified to repeat according to the treatment - step group specifications . treatment - step groups according to this invention include a start time and / or date , which can be specified as either a delay or as an absolute time and / or date , as is the case for treatment steps . treatment - step groups may include the number of treatment steps in the group . treatment - step groups can include a background rate , which specifies the treatment rate when no treatment step is in effect . a repetition count is also included . the repetition count is capable of indicating that the group should repeat forever . treatment - step groups also have a duration or period . a treatment - step group could have a maximum dosage associated with the group . in addition to treatment steps and treatment step groups , boluses could also be defined separately to include a start delay or start time and / or date , a treatment rate or dose , a treatment duration , and whether the bolus is low - priority patient - activated , or high - priority physician - activated . high priority boluses could always take precedence over treatment steps , while patient - activated boluses could take precedence only over treatment steps that specifically allow themselves to be overlaid by low - priority boluses . fig3 depicts the complex continuous mode treatment protocol depicted in fig2 , but programmed or specified using the generic treatment protocol of this invention . the prescription parameters are the same , namely , the treatment cycle time is 24 hours ; between 6 : 00 am and 8 : 00 am , 600 microliters is infused ; between 11 : 00 am and 1 : 00 pm , 200 microliters is infused ; and between 9 : 00 pm and 11 : 00 pm , 500 microliters is infused . in addition , the complex continuous mode treatment protocol is downlinked to the treatment device at 3 : 00 pm , as depicted by dashed line 200 - 1 . the treatment device automatically determines what treatment step or background rate should be executing at downlink time 200 - 1 . background rates 102 - 1 through 102 - 6 are the same as those depicted in fig2 with the same reference numbers . however , the delays between treatment steps , such as treatment steps 104 - 1 , 106 - 1 , 108 - 1 , and 104 - 2 , may , but need not be specified . the generic treatment protocol of this invention provides backward compatibility so that physician programmers familiar with existing treatment protocol programming methods will be able to use this invention without learning anything new , if a physician programmer so desires . nevertheless , treatment steps can be programmed using this invention by specifying treatment start time , a treatment end time , and a treatment rate or a treatment dose . accordingly , instead of programming treatment step 104 - 1 as described above , namely , as a delay of 6 hours from the time the protocol is downlinked to the treatment device and as providing treatment at 250 microliters / hour for 2 hours , treatment step 104 - 1 could be programmed to provide 500 microliters between a treatment - step start time of 9 : 00 pm and a treatment - step end time of 11 : 00 pm . treatment steps can also be specified as either allowing or not allowing a patient activated bolus and / or a patient - activated rate or dose adjustment . the physician - programmer may be provided with the option of disabling such patient - activated boluses and / or rate adjustments . a specified background rate can optionally be in effect for any period for which no treatment step is programmed . in addition to programming specific treatment steps , treatment - step groups can be specified . for instance , the treatment steps 104 - 1 , 106 - 1 , and 108 - 1 could be defined as a treatment - step group including these three treatment steps . such a treatment - step group could also include a repetition count specifying the number of times the treatment - step group should be executed . the treatment - step group could also be programmed to repeat forever . the duration of the treatment - step group is also programmable / user - selectable , which is advantageous for certain treatments having a treatment cycle time other than 24 hours , such as certain types of chemotherapy . the treatment - step group also may include a maximum incremental dosage for each iteration of a treatment - step group . fig4 depicts an exemplary programmed treatment protocol including a bolus followed by a complex continuous mode treatment protocol according to the following parameters : background rate : 60 microliters / hour ; group duration : 24 hours ; 6 - 8 am : 600 microliters ; 11 am - 1 pm : 250 microliters ; and 9 - 11 pm : 400 microliters . bolus 302 of fig4 is depicted as having been programmed according to the following parameters : 12 - 2 pm , 0 microliters ; 2 - 4 pm , 500 microliters / hour ; and 4 - 8 pm , 0 microliters / hour . the background rate of 60 microliters / hour is in effect as depicted at 300 - 1 . the treatment device is programmed off , which overrides the background rate , before and after the bolus 302 . the periods during which the treatment device is off are depicted as 304 - 1 and 304 - 2 , respectively . fig5 depicts a patient rate adjustment 400 , a patient - activated bolus 402 , and the interaction between a patient - activated bolus 404 that partially overlaps , and is locked - out by , treatment step 406 , which has been programmed to disable patient - activated boluses . the complex continuous treatment mode prescription depicted in fig5 has the same attributes as the complex continuous treatment prescription shown in fig4 , namely , background rate : 60 microliters / hour ; group duration : 24 hours ; 6 - 8 am : 600 microliters ; 11 am - 1 pm : 250 microliters ; and 9 - 11 pm : 400 microliters . in addition , the 6 - 8 am treatment step also specifies that patient boluses are disabled during that treatment step . patient - activated rate increase 400 is depicted as having been programmed as a rate increase of 60 microliters per hour from 4 - 9 pm over background rate 300 . patient bolus 402 is depicted as having been programmed as 300 microliters per hour from 12 - 2 am . although a patient bolus is attempted from 5 - 7 am at 300 microliters per hour , only the portion of the patient bolus from 5 - 6 am will actually be administered because from 6 - 7 am , patient boluses have been specifically disabled during programming of treatment step 406 . alternatively , a low - priority patient - activated bolus could be disabled in its entirety if any portion of the patient - activated bolus comes within a pre - determined time window either before or after a treatment step that disables patient - activated boluses . in addition to patient - activated low priority boluses , physician - programmer high priority boluses may also be specified . high priority boluses are always executed regardless of whether a particular treatment step has enabled patient - activated boluses . as used herein , the term user refers to a physician who programs the treatment device , as opposed to a patient within whom the treatment device is implanted . fig6 depicts a set of single execution treatment steps , spanned by double - headed arrow 500 , that can optionally be executed before repeated execution of a treatment - step group , two of which are spanned by double - headed arrows 502 and 504 . double - headed and dashed arrow 506 represents the time at which the single execution treatment steps 500 terminate . repeated - execution of treatment - step group 502 is depicted as starting upon termination of single execution treatment steps 500 . this is a specific example of generically starting execution of a repeated - execution treatment - step group after a predetermined delay elapses relative to termination of single execution treatment steps 500 . the predetermined delay between termination of single execution treatment steps 500 and repeated - execution treatment - step group 502 happens to be 0 seconds . as will be apparent , other suitable delays could also be used , as desired . repeated - execution treatment - step group 504 differs from repeated - execution treatment - step group 502 in the manner in which it begins executing upon termination of single - execution treatment steps 500 . repeated - execution treatment - step group 504 begins execution , not necessarily at the beginning of group 504 , but at the point in time of group 504 that corresponds to termination of single execution steps 500 . in other words , execution of repeated - execution treatment - step group 504 begins , or is picked - up , “ in - progress ” upon completion of single execution steps 500 , as depicted at 506 in fig6 . completion of each iteration of treatment - step group 504 is depicted at 512 . upon completion of the first iteration of repeated - execution treatment - step group 504 , each following iteration of treatment - step group 504 starts at the beginning of group 504 , which beginning is depicted at 514 . following repeated execution treatment step groups 502 and 504 are single - execution steps 508 and 510 , respectively . single execution steps 508 and / or 510 may optionally be executed following a finite number of repetitions of repeated - execution treatment - step groups 502 and / or 504 , respectively . according to an aspect of this invention , the timing of a particular treatment protocol can be altered according to time zone changes . for instance , if a patient is planning to travel from the united states to europe for a two - week vacation , the timing of treatment steps and / or treatment - step groups can be programmed to automatically adjust for the time zone change from the united states to europe and to re - adjust the timing upon the expected return to the united states .
a generic treatment protocol is disclosed for therapeutically treating a patient via an implantable treatment device . treatment steps can be defined to start and end at absolute times , or can be programmed via telemetry to start a certain amount of time after termination of a previously executed treatment step . treatment steps have a treatment rate or dose attribute and a duration attribute . treatment steps may optionally enable patient - activated bolus overlays . patient - activated rate or dosage adjustments can also optionally be enabled . repeated - execution treatment - step groups are also provided . such treatment - step groups can have start and end times , a group duration , and a group total dose , each defined in a manner similar to that for a treatment step . treatment - step groups include a repetition count , which could be set to a value that causes the group to repeat forever . single execution treatment steps can , accordingly , be programmed to execute before and / or after a repeated - execution treatment - step group .