MRI inventor recognized for patented innovation

HealthLeaders News Brief, June 18, 2007

The Intellectual Property Owners Education Foundation announced that the winner of the 2007 National Inventor of the Year Award is Raymond V. Damadian, MD, president and chairman of Fonar. The program, now in its 34th year, honors the spirit of American innovation and the protection offered to inventors by the patent system. Damadian was recognized for his development of upright magnetic resonance imaging technology. This invention enables physicians to image patients in various weight-bearing positions in order to view tissues or analyze the spine, joints, or bones for fractures under the strain of normal use rather than in a prone position.

The device also allows doctors to image the cardiovascular system when the body is upright and blood is being propelled against gravity. The system is equipped with an MRI-compatible motorized patient handling system that moves the patient into the magnet and places the anatomy of interest into the center of the magnet gap. It also can rotate the vertically- oriented patient into a horizontal position so the patient can be scanned lying down as in conventional MRI scanning.

Currently, Damadian has patents pending on a 360 degree or “room size” MRI, which gives surgeons complete access to a patient in the operating room during MRI scans, providing immediate diagnostic analysis of the surgery and allowing a surgeon to see images of the tissues as surgery is being performed.