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Diagnostic Medical Sonographer

Diagnostic medical sonography, or ultrasound, is one of the more recent specialties in diagnostic medicine. Ultrasound combines medical science and acoustical physics. Ultrasound is simply a high frequency sound wave similar to the sonar used in tracking submarines. The sound waves and their echoes locate organs and display them as two-dimensional images on a video monitor. Physicians can interpret and evaluate these organs for disease abnormalities or injury to the eyes, brain, pancreas, kidneys, liver, blood vessels, spleen and heart, as well as detect multiple births and birth defects from these images. Unlike X-rays (which use radiation to create images on film), ultrasound is noninvasive (it does not invade healthy tissue).

Diagnostic medical sonographers, also called ultrasound technologists, perform similar duties as radiologic technologists. Working under the supervision of a physician, sonographers provide quality imaging techniques in ultrasound diagnosis. The sonographer may perform a variety of studies, including the examination of the contour and inner structures of the brain (neurosonology); examination of the heart and its structures (echocardiography); examination of the soft tissue structures of the abdomen such as the liver, spleen, kidneys and pancreas; examination of the female anatomy and of pregnant females (gynecology and obstetrics); examination of the blood vessels near the body's surface; and examination of the eyes (ophthalmology). The sonographer is knowledgeable of the human anatomy and in large institutions has the opportunity to specialize in one of these areas.