A method and system for programming settings of a medical device
surgically implanted within a body of a patient. The system comprises a
physician programmer, a patient programmer, an external neural
stimulator, and a telemetry component being in communication with the
implanted medical device, the external neural stimulator, and the
physician programmer. The implantable medical device may be programmed
using a two-phase process, a screening phase and an implant phase. During
the screening phase, the physician and patient programmers may be used to
roughly test the parameters of the stimulation to determine that the
treatment therapy is efficacious. During the implant phase, the same
physician and patient programmers may be used to fine tune the parameters
of the stimulation.