Dr. Michael McNamara
Founder, Monaco LifeCheck Center, Monaco
Dr. Michael T. McNamara, MD is a pioneer in the specialties of Preventive Medicine and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), having founded the first hospital-based MRI department in Europe, at the Princess Grace Hospital in Monaco, in 1986.
He was educated at the University of Michigan in both undergraduate studies and medical school, followed by internship training in surgery in San Diego, California, then by residency and fellowship training in Diagnostic Radiology, MRI contrast media development, and new cardiac scanning methods at the University of California San Francisco. His work contributed to the development of innovative methods for the noninvasive detection of heart disease, as well as the development of new contrast media for MRI scanning, some still in clinical use throughout the world today.
Dr. McNamara authored or co-authored over 50 peer-reviewed scientific publications, has published a MRI medical textbook, MRI of the Body, and has also contributed to more than 20 book chapters in medical imaging textbooks.
His landmark publication, Detection and characterization of acute myocardial infarction in man with use of gated magnetic resonance, reporting his first discovery of the detection of heart attack in humans with MRI scanning, was published in the Circulation Journal of the American Heart Association in 1985.
Dr. McNamara developed Europe’s first Preventive Total Body Scanning program in 1993, founding the Monaco LifeCheck Center (MLCC) in the Principality of Monaco. MLCC has been Europe’s leading medical facility to deliver comprehensive preventive medical imaging diagnostic services, providing a complete “Executive Check-Up”, utilizing state-of-the art technologies. A second MLCC facility was opened in Moscow in 2008 at the prestigious Ritz-Carlton Hotel, the only such medical hotel-based facility in the world. A third MLCC center will open this year in Italy.
Dr. McNamara’s medical skills and interests extend beyond the realm of medical scanning. He served as the local Monaco doctor for the historical Dream Team 1 USA Olympic basketball team, while based in Monaco in 1992. He was also the official team physician for the Prince Albert II of Monaco North Pole Expedition in 2006.
