Identification system and method for radiation therapy

A method of processing medical patients for radiation therapy comprising steps of:

• affixing targets relative to individual patients for whom radiation therapy is prescribed such that each patient is associated with a unique pattern of positions of said targets;
• recording each of said patterns in memory;
• establishing a correspondence between each recorded pattern and the patient associated with said recorded pattern;
• recording medical information, including recording at least one of a patient radiation treatment plan, a medical history, and patient-location tracking data for each of said patients;
• and
• automatically accessing said medical information based upon recognition of one of said patterns, including imaging targets on one of said patients and matching a pattern of said imaged targets with one of said recorded patterns and including accessing said recorded medical information for the patient associated with said matched recorded pattern.

A method of processing a medical patient for a radiation therapy session comprising steps of:

• affixing targets to said patient in a pattern that is unique to said patient;
• generating image data of said targets;
• determining positions of said targets in three-dimensional space based upon said image data;
• comparing said positions to stored position data representative of positions of targets that were affixed to patients during prior radiation therapy sessions;
• and
• if a match is detected between said positions of targets affixed to said patient and positions of targets during a prior session, downloading medical information regarding said patient, said medical information including at least one of a patient radiation treatment plan, a medical history, and patient location tracking information, said downloading being based upon an association in memory between said medical information and said positions of targets during said prior session, thereby using said position data as an identifier of said patient.