Diagnostic sonography and ultrasound technology jobs require an associate or bachelor's degree.
Diagnostic sonography represents a medical imaging science that uses ultrasound energy to diagnose illnesses or to monitor a patient's health. A probe in contact with the patient skin sends waves of ultrasound energy inside the body. As the sound waves touch the surfaces of organs, blood vessels or bones, reflective energy bounces back and the echoes are captured by the probe. The equipment interprets the reflections and derives an image from the data.
Diagnostic Sonographer
Diagnostic sonographers use the ultrasound technology to observe internal tissues of patients and derive a diagnostic of what the patient condition might be, explains the Society of Diagnostic Medical Sonography. Typically, a sonographer will ask the patient to take a certain physical position appropriate to observe an area of the body. Then the sonographer applies a gel that helps eliminate the air gap between a probe and the skin. Finally, the health care worker takes a cone-shape or rectangular-shape probe and places it on the skin. The probe is moved back and forth, as the professional adjusts the setting of the equipment and zooms the image on a specific location. This painless procedure concludes with the image observed by the sonographer being printed and filed onto a computer hard drive for later examination.
Specialties
Diagnostic sonographers may select one specialization and advance within their medical field. The American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography (ARDMS) offers some possible suggestions. For instance, the specializations include obstetrics and gynecology sonography, or abdominal imaging that covers the observation of the liver, kidney, spleen or pancreas. Neurosonography images the brain, breast sonography assists in the diagnosis of breast cancer and cardiac or vascular sonography explores issues within the circulatory system.
Education
A job in sonography typically requires an associate or bachelor's degree in sonography. Hospitals, colleges and universities or the Armed Forces have developed training programs that educate diagnostic sonographers. The Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP) reviewed these programs in 2008 and accredited 150 of them. Vocational schools may offer an accelerated entrance into the profession with the issuance of a vocational certificate in sonography to professionals already in health care fields.
Certification
U.S. states have no certification requirements for this profession. However, employers tend to favor a candidate who has taken the American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography exam and, as a result, has become a Registered Diagnostic Medical Sonographer (RDMS). This test is open to associate or bachelor's degree graduates and covers practice and technology.
Employment
About 50,300 sonographers worked in this field in 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The number of jobs is expected to grow faster than average. The BLS foresees an 18 percent growth between 2008 and 2018. An increase in outpatient care is at the root of this expansion. More sonograms are done outside of a hospital because of the introduction of low-cost ultrasound technology to the market.
Earnings
The median value of annual income for a diagnostic sonographer was $61,980 in 2008, according to the BLS. The top 10 percent of salaries stood above $83,950. A sonographer can move into a supervisory role or elevate his income by seeking RDMS qualifications in various specialty areas, such as the cardiac or vascular system, or neurosonography.
Tags: Diagnostic Medical, associate bachelor, associate bachelor degree, bachelor degree, Diagnostic Medical Sonography