Given the uniqueness of Upright^TM imaging technology, available only with the FONAR Upright^TM MRI, an increasing number of highly respected surgeons believe that FONAR's scanners will reshape the MR imaging market because recumbent-only scanning addresses the needs of only a fraction of patients. In fact, there is belief that the FONAR Upright^TM imaging technology must replace all recumbent-only scanning for maladies of the spine, since the recumbent scan is largely not relevant to the vast majority of patients who experience back pain when they are erect and weight-bearing. With the high rate of failed back surgery being what it is(1), and a syndrome (FBSS)(2) specifically named for it, FONAR's Upright^TM MRI is a much needed product.

As previously reported by FONAR based on third party studies, careful quantitative in vivo measurements of the pressure exerted on the intervertebral disc when the patient is lying down, is one-fifth (sitting) to one-eleventh (standing bending forward) of what the disc pressures are when the patient is erect (H-J. Wilke, P. Neef, M. Caimi, T. Hoogland and L. E. Claes, Spine 24, #8, pp. 755-762, 1999; and A. L. Nachemson, Spine 1, #1, pp. 59-71, 1976). A recumbent-only examination, therefore, cannot provide a satisfactory diagnosis of a patient's back pain when the compressive forces responsible for the back pain have been removed. The need for FONAR's new Upright^TM MRI imaging technology is significant, inasmuch as there are 9 ,000,000 patients scanned annually in the MRI for back pain, 916,000 of whom proceed to surgery each year for relief from their pain (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services).


To date, U.S. government agencies, including the VA which manages the largest medical education and health professions training program in the U.S., have had limited if any exposure to the FONAR Upright^TM MRI and therefore have not availed military and related personnel to the scanner's many benefits. The VA health care system had 7.7 million veterans who were enrolled as of October 2005, the latest figures available. About a quarter of the nation's population, or approximately 70 million people, are potentially eligible for VA benefits and services because they are veterans, family members or survivors of veterans.

In a recent "State of the VA" speech, the Honorable R. James Nicholson, Secretary of the Veterans Affairs agency, said his organization's 154 hospitals and more than 900 clinics will treat more than 5.3 million veterans in 2006. VA health care facilities provide a broad spectrum of medical, surgical and rehabilitative care. The Washington Post reported in March that the VA's health care budget has risen 69% in the past five years, and under President Bush's proposed 2007 fiscal year budget, the VA would receive one of the biggest increases in discretionary spending for any Federal agency. The increase is expected to be $2.6 billion, bringing the total budget to $35.7 billion.

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