I was recently looking at some health care  and Q&A forums about medical imaging careers and I noticed that there are many people who want to purse a career in ultrasound, but are both confused about the terminology of job roles within the field and how the technology is used.  It seems that everyone wants to go into obstetrics, but I have a sneaking suspicion that this is simply because they are not aware of the many other ways the technology is used.  So, I’m going to hopefully clarify a few things.

First, lets start with a vocabulary and job title lesson.  The proper title for someone who performs what we call “ultrasound images” is a Diagnostic Medical Sonographer.  The image that is created with the technology is called a sonogram.  If we simply call someone a sonographer, we could be talking about someone who uses the technology for scanning ocean depth or any other use of ultra sound wave technology.

Second, the use of medical sonograms is constantly growing.  In addition to gynecological and obstetric (pregnancy) sonograms, there is:  cardiac sonography (heart), vascular sonography (blood vessels), neurosonology (brain), and ophthalmology (eye).  These are just to name a few and the lists keeps growing.

When you get a degree of applied science in diagnostic medical sonography, you often have a choice of taking different “track” options where you can get more in depth learning about a specific sub specialty.  One of the fastest growing specializations in ultrasound is vascular & cardiovascular technology.  This involves imaging and invasive procedures involving blood vessels, and the normal functioning of the flow through the heart, valve function, and much more.  As the baby boomers age, the proportion of our population that is considered “elderly” grows at an unprecedented rate, which is spurring demand for these procedures and the professionals who can skillfully perform them.

If you are one of those who are hazy about the field of ultrasound or not sure if it would be a good career fit for you, begin by doing some more research, read professional profiles, job descriptions, and learn about sonography schools in your area.

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