Fonar Corp (FONR)

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FONAR Completes Installation of Subsidiary's 3rd Stand-Up MRI

MELVILLE, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 15, 2003--FONAR Corporation (NASDAQ-FONR), The MRI Specialist(TM), announced today it has completed its 18th Stand-Up(TM) MRI scanner installation, the third Stand-Up(TM) MRI installation in an HMCA-managed scanning center. HMCA (Health Management Corporation of America) is FONAR's wholly-owned physician and diagnostic services management subsidiary. The new scanner was installed at the Stand-Up MRI of Staten Island, P.C. facility located at 2090 Hylan Blvd. in Staten Island, New York ([phone]). This latest installation in Staten Island is the 6th Stand-Up(TM) MRI installation in the third fiscal quarter, the 13th in fiscal 2003; the 18th overall.

Raymond Damadian, president and chairman of FONAR Corporation said, "We are delighted to have our 3rd HMCA-managed Stand-Up(TM) MRI on line. Our plan is to complete Stand-Up(TM) MRI upgrades at as many HMCA-managed sites as we can - the sooner the better." The other two HMCA-managed Stand-up MRI facilities, also in the metropolitan New York area, are located in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn and in Islandia, Long Island.

Dr. Damadian continued, "The Stand-Up(TM) MRI is very popular with physicians and patients." In FONAR's February 13, 2003 earnings announcement, the Company stated: "Included in HMCA"s $719,000 operating loss was approximately $537,000 in operating income from the management of its first Stand-Up(TM) MRI scanning center in Islandia, New York in the first six months of fiscal 2003." The Stand-Up(TM) MRIs at the three HMCA-managed centers were purchased, with outside bank financing.

Ms. Gina Superty, the office manager at Stand-Up MRI of Staten Island, said: "As someone who is claustrophobic, I see the Stand-Up(TM) MRI as a tremendous breakthrough. In fact, I think everyone will appreciate the unusual openness and comfort of this scanner. Besides that, the Stand-Up(TM) MRI provides multi-position imaging where patients can be scanned in the positions that cause them problems. It makes possible a much more realistic diagnosis. Now the patient can be scanned upright, standing or sitting. These are the positions of normal everyday living, the positions in which we have most of our problems. Scanning everybody lying down just doesn't make sense. In addition, there are a significant number of patients who can't be scanned at all because they can't be scanned lying down. They can't be scanned lying down because of pain or because of respiratory problems. In FONAR's Stand-Up(TM) MRI the patient can be scanned in any position, whichever is most comfortable for him."

Stand-Up(TM) MRI centers enjoy a high volume of patients, scanning between 15 and 20 patients per day soon after they are open for business. More important, the FONAR Stand-Up(TM) MRI is helping patients in ways that no other diagnostic imaging modality can. Early results have shown that the Stand-Up(TM) MRI detects pathology with the patients in an upright positions that are undetected on conventional recumbent-only scanners.

Be sure to visit FONAR's Web site for Company product and investor information: http://www.fonar.com

CONTACT:
FONAR Corporation
Daniel Culver or David Terry, 631/694-2929
Fax: [phone]
E-mail: [e-mail]
SOURCE: FONAR Corporation