Systems and methods for a configurable programmer for an implantable cardiovascular medical device are disclosed. A preferred embodiment comprises a graphical user interface to visualize programming processes to alert a clinician to potential problems with the patient's condition or the therapy provided by the device, or the device itself. The programmer is further adapted to minimize the risk of programming potentially dangerous changes to the implantable device's parameter settings by requiring the clinician to first review new value changes before initiating the programming step. The programmer also allows the clinician to view how a change to one or more parameter settings affect other settings before the implantable device is programmed or re-programmed.