Raymond Damadian: Difference between revisions

Professor Raymond Vahan Damadian (born March 16 1936), is an American pioneer of magnetic resonance imaging.

Damadian was born in New York. He is of Melville, New York, a scientist of Armenian descent, who earned his BS in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin in 1956, and an M.D. degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City in 1960.

In a 1971 paper, he reported that tumors and normal tissue responded differently to nuclear magnetic resonance ("NMR") in the journal Science. He suggested that these differences could be used to diagnose cancer, though later research would find that these differences, while real, are too variable for diagnostic purposes. Additionally, some of his initial methods would turn out to be flawed. ^[1] Nonetheless, in 1974, he patented the design and use of NMR ^[2] for detecting cancer. As the ^[3] notes, "The patent included the idea of using NMR to "scan" the human body to locate cancerous tissue". However, it did not describe a method for generating pictures from such a scan or precisely how such a scan might be done.

In the 1950s, Herman Carr ^[4] using gradients to create a one-dimensional MR image. Prompted by Damadian's report on the potential medical uses of NMR, Paul Lauterbur and Peter Mansfield expanded on Carr's technique to generate the first 2D and 3D MRI images. While Lauterbur and Mansfield focused on animals and human limbs, it was Damadian who produced the first full magnetic resonance imaging ("MRI") scan of the human body, albeit using a "focused field" technique that differs from conventional imaging.

In 1978, Damadian formed his own company, FONAR, for the production of MRI scanners, and in 1980, he produced the first commercial one. Unfortunately for Damadian, his "focused field" technology proved less effective than Carr's gradient approach. His scanner, named "Indomitable", failed to sell. FONAR eventually abandoned Damadian's technique in favour of the methods adopted by Lauterbur and Mansfield. ^[5]

Damadian later collaborated with Wilson Greatbatch, one early developer of the implantable pacemaker, to develop a MRI-compatible pacemaker.

Damadian received a National Medal of Technology in 1988 and was inducted in the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1989. In 2001, the Lemelson-MIT program bestowed its Lifetime Achievement Award on Damadian as "the man who invented the MRI scanner" ^[6]. The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia gave its recognition of Damadian's work on MRI with the Bower Award in Business Leadership. He was also named Knights of Vartan 2003 "Man of the Year".

In recording the history of MRI, Mattson and Simon (1996) credit Damadian with describing the concept of whole-body NMR scanning, as well as discovering the NMR tissue relaxation differences that made this feasible.

In 2003, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Paul Lauterbur and Sir Peter Mansfield for their discoveries related to MRI. Although Nobel rules allow for the award to be shared with a third party, neither Carr nor Damadian were given the prize.

This omission drew protests. Carr outlined his discovery claims in a letter to Physics Today, pointing out Laderbur likely saw his work, but did not cite it. Similarly, between October and November 2003 Damadian took out large, expensive advertisements in the New York Times and The Washington Post protesting his exclusion with the headline "The Shameful Wrong That Must Be Righted"^[7]. Damadian suggested that Lauterbur and Mansfield should have rejected the Nobel Prize unless Damadian was given joint recognition. Supporting Damadian were various MRI experts including John Throck Watson, Eugene Feigelson, V. Adrian Parsegian, David D. Stark and James Mattson.

New York Times columnist Horace Freeland Judson criticised this behavior, noting that over the years many other equally-deserving researchers had been similarly slighted and that there is "no Nobel Prize for whining"^[8].

However, public policy strongly supports appropriately-assigning discovery credit. For one thing, it is a major part of the reward system in science. E.g., the Noble Foundation is a Swedish institution. The local Danish (and arguably the Swedish) definition of scientific misconduct includes "....a false credit or emphasis given to a scientist". Arguably, this is what the Nobel committee does in the circumstances to which Judson alludes, even while he deplores Damadian's "whining". Similarly, article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: "(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author."

Others point out that while Damadian had hypothesized that NMR relaxation times might be used to detect cancer, he did not develop (nor did he suggest) the current way of creating images. Since the Nobel Prize was awarded to Paul Lauterbur and Sir Peter Mansfield for the development of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Damadian's exclusion makes more sense, though that of Carr does not. Arguably, the Nobel committee did not know of [Herman Carr]'s earlier accomplishment of imaging, which only emerged after the prize. It is also true that "scanning" as proposed by Damadian implies imaging. E.g., see Fonar v Hitachi.

Damadian is a controversial figure in NMR circles, not least for his exuberant behavior at conferences. ^[9]. He is also fundamentalist Christian and a young earth creationist^[10] and a member of the "Technical Advisory Board" of the Institute for Creation Research ^[11]. Philosopher Michael Ruse writing for the Metanexus Institute suggested that Damadian might have been denied a Nobel prize because of his creationist views, saying "I cringe at the thought that Raymond Damadian was refused his just honor because of his religious beliefs. Having silly ideas in one field is no good reason to deny merit for great ideas in another field. Apart from the fact that this time the Creation Scientists will think that there is good reason to think that they are the objects of unfair treatment at the hands of the scientific community."^[12], a point that has been picked up by creationists such as Carl Wieland of Answers in Genesis who cite it as an example of anti-creationist bias in science^[13]. Though others consider the claim to be mere speculation^[14].

• Nobel Prize controversies

• FONAR corporate website
• "Nobel Prizefight"
• The National Science Foundation's history of MRI. The author cites personal interviews with the principals.
• Cope's 1969 paper on NMR of brain and muscle. Links to early references.
• "Patent Fights Aplenty for M.R.I. Pioneer" New York Times Article on Damadian.

• James Mattson and Merrill Simon. The Pioneers of NMR and Magnetic Resonance in Medicine: The Story of MRI. Jericho & New York: Bar-Ilan University Press, 1996. ISBN 0961924314.