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-Position™ MRI.

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.

Visit: www.fonar.com/history.htm

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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