American Shared Hospital Services Announces the Signing of a Letter of Intent for a Gamma Knife in Brazil.

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 18, 1996--American Shared Hospital Services (AMEX/PSE:AMS for common stock; AMS.A for 16 1/2% notes), Wednesday announced the signing of letter of intent for its subsidiary GK Financing, LLC to install a Leksell Gamma Knife at Hospital Barra D'Or in Barra de Tijuca, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

This Gamma Knife will be the first installation of its kind in Brazil and the second and most advanced in South America.

Hospital Barra D'Or, currently under construction, will be 150 bed private hospital, and is scheduled for completion in July, 1997. The Gamma Knife unit is a stereotactic radiosurgical device manufactured by Elekta AB of Sweden. The Gamma Knife non-invasively treats certain vascular malformations and brain tumors.

"Our entry into the Brazilian market is very exciting," said Ernest A. Bates, M.D., chairman and CEO of American Shared. "Installation of the Gamma Knife at Hospital Barra D'Or will not only allow us to provide this cost effective, non-invasive therapy to Brazilians but also to other South Americans either currently being treated with conventional brain surgery or at other Gamma Knife Centers. This Gamma Knife will be shared by all the major neurosurgeons in Rio de Janeiro.

"American Shared believes it is the first to offer fee-for-service contract services in South America. We intend to market additional healthcare services on a fee-for-service basis in the rapidly expanding Brazilian medical marketplace."

American Shared Hospital Services is a diversified medical services company, with interests in mobile and shared diagnostic imaging, radiosurgery, and insurance services. Headquarters are in San Francisco.

CONTACT: American Shared Hospital Services

Richard Magary, 415/788-5300 M-F 8am-6pm

415/658-8003 After Hours