About FONAR
FONAR has the most accomplished history of any company in MRI. The company's
heritage helps to document the quality of its products and distinguishes
it from all other MRI companies. A timeline of its achievements follows.
It includes the groundbreaking discovery of the principle that makes MRI
imaging possible, the patent for the first MRI, and the sale of the world's
first MRI.
1969 - Original Idea for MR Scanner (Grant Application to Health
Research Council of the City of New York)*
1969 - Realizes Need for a Compelling Application to Justify
Building Human Scanner. Decides on Cancer Detection
1970 - Key Discovery Makes the MRI Possible
Discovery of the marked T1 and T2 signal differences among the
normal tissues and also between the normal tissue and cancer tissue.
Discovery enables soft-tissue detail previously absent from medical
imaging, and early cancer detection; used today to detect cancers
worldwide. "NMR developed into a laboratory spectroscopic
technique capable of examining the molecular structure of compounds,
until Damadian's ground-breaking discovery in 1971." MRI
From Picture to Proton, Cambridge University Press, 2003)
March
1971 - First Article Published (Science)
Spring 1971 - First Ever Method Proposed (Downstate Reporter)
March 1972 - First MR Patent Filed (3D Serial Voxel Scanning
Method). Patent Issued 1974.
1976 - The Struggle Begins. Expert Declares, "Any further
discussion of scanning the human body by MR (NMR) is visionary
nonsense."
1976 - Construction of First Human MR Scanner Commences
1977
- Construction Completed; First Human Scan Achieved: Thoracic
Image at T-8
1980 - FONAR Installs First Commercial MRI; Initiates MRI Industry
1997
- Patent Upheld by High Court on U. S. Patents and the U.
S. Supreme Court. (1.1 Million Pages of Documentary Evidence
Scrutinized
and Argued; No Prior Art)
2001 - Introduction of the FONAR UPRIGHT Multi-Position MRI
2007 - National Inventor of the Year Award for the UPRIGHT Multi-PositionMRI.
* For documents visit www.fonar.com/fonar_timeline.htm
More about the FONAR UPRIGHT Multi-Position MRI.
The FONAR UPRIGHT Multi-Position MRI is a dramatic
advance over all other MRI's, which can only scan the patient
in a recumbent-only,
non-weight-bearing position. The UPRIGHT allows the patient
to be imaged upright, with the weight of the body on the spine.
Most patients are scanned sitting, while they enjoy watching
TV. Patients can also be scanned in flexion, extension, rotation,
as well as lying down. This positional imaging allows surgeons
and radiologists to see patients in the position of their symptoms.
Studies and physician experience show that diagnosis using the
FONAR UPRIGHT changes surgical protocols and provides better
surgical outcomes in approximately 20% of the cases.
The FONAR UPRIGHT Multi-Position MRI is also unrivaled
in patient comfort. It has a near zero claustrophobic rejection
rate by patients. It can scan obese patients who cannot fit into
a recumbent MRI, and it allows imaging of children while they
sit in their mother's lap.
Over a half million patients have been scanned by the FONAR
UPRIGHT MRI.
To date, 152 UPRIGHT MRIs have been sold. The superiority
of the technology is achieving wider recognition every day.
Another New FONAR MRI: The FONAR 360
FONAR has invented another breakthrough MRI, the FONAR 360.
It's a room-size recumbent scanner that optimizes openness while
facilitating physician access to the patient during surgery.
FONAR is headquartered on Long Island, New York, and has approximately
400 employees.
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The Inventor of MR Scanning™,
Full Range of Motion™, STAND-UP™, UPRIGHT™,
Multi-Position™, pMRI™, True Flow™, Walk-In™ and
The Proof is in the Picture™ are trademarks of FONAR Corporation.
This release may include
forward-looking statements from the company that may or may not
materialize. Additional information on factors that could potentially
affect the company's financial results may be found in the company's
filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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