Devices, systems and methods for therapeutic muscle stimulation

Devices, systems and methods are described for providing muscle contraction stimulation therapy to treat myriad diseases, including heart failure, Type 2 diabetes, and peripheral vascular disease using a skin patch or implantable stimulator that includes a multiplicity of electrodes, a processor, a stimulation circuit, one or more sensors and programming for a patient interface unit, wherein the processor is programmed to control selection of a subset of the multiplicity of electrodes and of operation of the stimulation circuit responsive to an indication of an adverse physiologic response. The indication of patient discomfort may be determined by monitoring a physiologic parameter of the subject using the one or more sensors, by direct input from the subject via the patient interface unit programming, or a combination thereof. The devices, systems and methods also provide for automatically optimizing the stimulation parameters applied by the stimulation circuit responsive to feedback from the one or more sensors and/or by using direct input from the subject.