The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW), has granted regulatory and reimbursement approval to St. Jude Medical for its Atlas II implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD).

The St. Paul, Minn.-based company said its Atlas II ICD enhances telemetry speed with:

• DeFT Response technology, designed to help devices meet the needs of patients who may have high or varying thresholds for the amount of energy required to defibrillate the heart, which enables physicians to tailor device therapy for individual patients and offers added protection in the event of an arrhythmia;
• SenseAbility technology, designed to optimize sensing to help protect against inappropriate shocks; and
• Vibrating patient notifier, which gently vibrates to notify patients of critical changes in device performance, instead of issuing the standard audio alert; this can be beneficial for people with hearing loss.