A Look at Doctor Damadian

It’s always good to know a little bit about the creation of things. History can be fun and it can also go a long way toward helping people at ease. In diagnostic imaging there is a lot of fun history that can help relax a patient’s mind. So what kind of history is there that people want to learn about? Any modality has something of a fun fact really. MRI and CT scanners, X- Rays, all of them are interesting and reveal the origins of the often feared “procedure.”

If we stop to look we can find fun and interesting facts about the creation, and the creators. If we take a minute we can likely find some interesting facts about the MRI. Let’s see if we can come up with a few interesting facts about the inventor of the MR machine:

• The inventor of the MR machine was Raymond Damadian
• Raymond was a musician; he attended Julliard and played a mean violin.
• Raymond is an MD with a BS in mathematics.
• Served in the US Air Force
• Proposed the first body scanner in 1969, at the age of 33
• Damadian conducted the first experiments on rats.
• His company created the whole body scanner
• He is a member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame and has been since age 53

While these facts do not necessarily serve as a way to educate a patient on needs for procedures or the nature of procedures themselves, it’s good to know. Often times small talk between a patient and doctor may work to ease the patient’s mind prior to a procedure. It’s certain that a talk about Raymond Damadian’s life and genius achievements will not really make a procedure’s outcome better, but the knowledge may just help alleviate what could be bad news.

If you have any questions about imaging procedures, please feel free to give us a call. We here at Clermont Radiology look forward to answering any questions you may have. 

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