Techniques for mitigating transmission of stale data from an implantable device are provided. In one embodiment, a method includes monitoring one or more data items stored in a data management queue prior to submission to a packet transmission queue for transmission as packets on a communication network to one or more other devices. The method also includes discarding a data item from the data management queue based on a determination that the data item has an expected arrival time to an other device that is after a latest acceptable arrival time associated with the data item. The method also includes estimating a size of the packet transmission queue, and transmitting another data item from the data management queue to the packet transmission queue based on a determination that the size of the packet transmission queue has a defined relationship to the threshold size.