Contact Information: Contact: Daniel Culver, Director of Communications FONAR Corporation Tel: 631-694-2929 Fax: 631-390-1709 http://www.fonar.com
FONAR Enters Africa and Middle East Markets With Sale to Leading Medical Center in Libya
| Source: FONAR Corporation
MELVILLE, NY--(Marketwire - March 3, 2009) - FONAR Corporation (NASDAQ : FONR ), The Inventor
of MR Scanning™, announced today that it has sold an UPRIGHT®
Multi-Position™ MRI to a leading medical center in Libya -- the Tripoli
Medical Center. This is an especially significant sale for FONAR, because
it marks the entrance of the company's UPRIGHT® imaging technology into
the markets of Africa and the Middle East.
The Tripoli Medical Center is a state-of-the-art facility with
approximately 1450 beds, 1000 physicians, and 3000 employees
(http://www.tmc.ly/).
The purchase of the FONAR UPRIGHT® was funded by the Libyan government,
which has allocated approximately $1 billion to bring international
know-how and best-practice methods to Libya.
The general director of the Tripoli Medical Center, Professor Omran
Al-Shamam, M.D., stated, "It is with great pride that we bring this
leading-edge technology to the people of Libya. The many unique benefits
of the FONAR UPRIGHT® Multi-Position™ MRI make it a necessity for us,
not an option -- particularly its ability to image the spine in the full
range of normal dynamic positions, including flexion and extension, and
with the normal weight of the body on the spine. This unrivaled technology
will allow us to identify much more accurately the pathology that is
causing our patients' symptoms. Our surgeons are truly enthusiastic about
the potential of the FONAR UPRIGHT® MRI to result in improved surgical
planning and surgical outcomes. In addition, it eliminates the
claustrophobic effect that troubles many patients."
Dr. Al-Shamam continued, "We're also looking forward to the enormous
benefits of the FONAR UPRIGHT® MRI in visualizing the soft tissue of the
pelvic floor in the Upright® patient, which can be the only position in
which the pathology is evident. We also appreciate the advantages of the
UPRIGHT® in pediatrics, because of its ability to image children while
they sit on their mothers' laps, so anesthesia, which is often required in
recumbent-only MRIs, can be eliminated to a significant degree in the FONAR
UPRIGHT®. Finally, its ability to image the young scoliosis patient
without radiation and avoid the increased risk of breast cancer due to
overexposure to X-ray, as reported by the U.S. National Cancer Institute,
is a major benefit for our people. For all these reasons we consider the
FONAR UPRIGHT® MRI, as others have said, to be mandatory and not
optional."
Dr. Raymond Damadian, founder and president of FONAR, commented, "I commend
Dr. Al-Shamam and the Tripoli Medical Center for their commitment to
bringing this advanced technology to the benefit of their patients. FONAR
is pleased that its new technology is giving birth to a new radiologic
discipline, which we call UPRIGHT® Radiology™. While X-ray devices
such as the chest X-ray have long been able to provide pictures of the
erect human body, chest X-rays are lacking in their ability to generate
slices. (Conventional CT scanners, for example, are recumbent-only
devices.) In the absence of slice anatomy, technologies without them such
as the conventional chest X-ray are no longer state-of-the-art in their
ability to achieve high-resolution imaging of the body's organ systems."
Dr. Damadian continued, "MR scanning itself added a critical new dimension
to medical imaging. It made possible for the first time the ability to
achieve detailed images of the body's critical and vital soft tissues.
Nonetheless, it still fell short of its ultimate potential, namely the
ability to provide detailed images of the human body and all of its tissues
in the body's normal UPRIGHT® positions of function.
"UPRIGHT® Radiology™, brought to life by FONAR technology, can now
provide images of all the body's soft, as well as, structural organ systems
in the complete range of UPRIGHT® positions in which they function. I am
sure Dr. Al-Shamam and the surgeons at the Tripoli Medical Center will find
that the FONAR UPRIGHT® MRI will vastly enhance their ability to provide
the latest in state-of-the art healthcare for their patients."
For investor and other information visit: www.fonar.com.
UPRIGHT® and STAND-UP® are registered trademarks and Upright
Radiology™, The Inventor of MR Scanning™, Full Range of Motion™,
pMRI™, Dynamic™, Multi-Position™, True Flow™, The Proof is in
the Picture™, Spondylography™ and Spondylometry™ 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.