Fonar CEO disputes MRI Nobel
This article was originally published in The Gray Sheet
Executive Summary
2003 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine awarded to Paul Lauterbur, MD, University of Illinois, for discovering "the possibility to create a two-dimensional picture by introducing gradients in the magnetic field," and Peter Mansfield, MD, University of Nottingham in Britain, for demonstrating "how the [gradients] could be mathematically analyzed, which made it possible to develop a useful imaging technique." The prize is strongly contested by Fonar founder and CEO Raymond Damadian, MD, who has taken out full-page ads in newspapers such as the Washington Post, insisting he deserves a third of the $1.3 mil. award for making initial discoveries enabling MRI technology. The Post ad, which cost approximately $84,000, accuses the Nobel Committee of "attempting to rewrite history." Fonar manufactures the Stand-Up MRI, distributed by GE Medical Systems. Roughly 57 systems have been sold to date...