Patent Number: 
Section: claims

1. A radiation beam therapy system comprising:an assembly of treatment devices, including:a charged-particle accelerator that provides a beam of energetic charged particles;a treatment station that allows positioning of a patient to receive at least a portion of the beam of charged particles; anda beam delivery system that delivers the beam of charged particles to the patient positioned at the treatment location;a database component that stores subsets of parameters associated with selected treatment devices, wherein the parameters comprise instructional information that can be used to configure the selected treatment devices for operation;an interface component that allows a user to modify the subsets of parameters associated with selected treatment devices stored in the database wherein the system is configured so that changes to the stored subsets of parameters in the database component can only be made through the interface component; anda management component that extracts subsets of parameters from the database and generates data storage elements comprising the extracted subsets of parameters in a format recognizable by the selected treatment devices, wherein the data storage elements permit configuration of the selected treatment devices based, at least in part, on the instructional information comprised therein, the management component further distributes the data storage elements to the selected treatment devices to thereby permit the selected treatment devices to operate independently of the database component. 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the beam of charged particles comprises a beam of protons. 3. The system of claim 2, wherein the treatment station comprises a rotatable gantry that allows delivery of the beam of protons to the positioned patient from a plurality of angles. 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the subsets of parameters include treatment data, configuration parameters, operational parameters, and control settings for the selected treatment devices. 5. The system of claim 4, wherein the selected treatment devices are software controlled instruments that require at least one of the subsets of parameters for operation and treatment. 6. The system of claim 1, wherein the database component comprises a centralized database server, which stores configuration and operational information, such as data, parameters, and control settings, for the selected treatment devices in a manner so as to provide easy access to the stored configuration and operational information, wherein parameter retrieval and modification are easily performed by the centralized database server via requests from the interface component. 7. The system of claim 6, wherein the centralized database server provides configuration management activities, which includes record keeping and version/revision control. 8. The system of claim 1, wherein the interface component only permits changes to the stored parameters during time periods when the management component is not extracting subsets of parameters from the database and distributing such extracted parameters to the selected treatment devices. 9. The system of claim 1, wherein the management component reduces the occurrence of single point failures by generating appropriate data storage elements and distributing the data storage elements to the selected treatment devices. 10. The system of claim 9, wherein the distribution of data storage elements by the management component affords the selected treatment devices operational independence from the database component due to the associated reliance on the data storage elements for parameter retrieval and operational configuration. 11. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one communication link between the management component and the selected treatment devices so as to distribute the generated data storage elements to the selected treatment devices. 12. The system of claim 1, wherein the subsets of parameters are stored in the database component in at least one of database table structures, records, and values. 13. The system of claim 1, wherein the data storage elements are arranged in a consolidated information set that is recognizable by the selected treatment devices. 14. The system of claim 13, wherein the consolidated information set exploits the native functionality of the selected treatment devices in a manner such that an additional numerical or supplemental program or application is unnecessary for the selected treatment devices to recognize the configuration parameter values from the data storage elements. 15. The system of claim 1, wherein the data storage elements comprise a data type that is stored and accessed in a file-oriented manner as is suitable for each selected treatment devices. 16. The system of claim 1, wherein the data storage elements comprise a data type that is stored and accessed in an address-oriented manner as is suitable for each selected treatment devices. 17. The system of claim 1, wherein the data storage elements comprise one or more volatile or non-volatile system control files. 18. The system of claim 1, wherein the data storage elements comprise one or more system control files. 19. The system of claim 18, wherein the one or more system control files include one or more flat files. 20. The system of claim 1, wherein the management component sends configurable parameters to each treatment device, and wherein a selected treatment device retrieves usable parameters from the configurable parameters. 21. The system of claim 1, wherein the management component selectively sends configurable parameters to each treatment device representing usable parameters by each treatment device. 22. A radiation beam therapy system comprising:a plurality of distributed functional components that operate to provide a radiation beam to a patient;a database component that stores a plurality of parameters associated with the distributed functional components,an interface component that allows a user to select an operational mode for which the database component identifies appropriate subsets of parameters that are associated with the distributed functional components and generates at least one system control file containing an appropriate subset of parameters used to configure a selected distributed functional component to operate in a selected manner wherein the subsets of parameters can only be changed via the interface component; anda control file distribution component that provides each of the distributed functional components with the appropriate system control file such that the functional components are able to operate substantially independently of the database component to thereby reduce the likelihood of a single point failure of the radiation beam therapy system and wherein changes to the subsets of parameters can only be made when system control files are not being distributed. 23. The system of claim 22, wherein the distributed functional components are software controlled instruments that require at least one of the plurality of parameters for operation.