METHODS, SYSTEMS, AND DEVICES FOR IMPROVING COMMUNICATION BETWEEN EXTERNAL DEVICES AND IMPLANTABLE MEDICAL DEVICES

External devices, methods for use therewith, and systems including an external device and an implantable medical device (IMD) are described. A method includes receiving at the external device, using each of first, second, and third subsets of at least three external electrodes, conductive communication pulses transmitted by the IMD, and determining, for each subset of the external electrodes, a respective metric indicative of power and/or quality of the conductive communication pulses received from the IMD using the subset of external electrodes. The method further includes identifying, based on results of the determining, a preferred one of the first, second, and third subsets of the at least three external electrodes, and using the preferred one of the first, second, and third subsets of the at least three external electrodes to receive further conductive communication pulses transmitted by the IMD.