As a skilled general sonographer, you will specialize in abdominal sonography (the liver, kidneys, gallbladder, spleen and pancreas), obstetric and gynecologic sonography, small parts (thyroid, breast, and scrotum), vascular sonography, musculoskeletal sonography and neurosonography.  Diagnostic medical sonographers are trained to operate specialized equipment that sends sound waves into areas of the patient’s body.  Sonographers must have technical aptitude, in-depth knowledge of anatomy and physiology, as well as being extremely detail-oriented to identify visual cues of disease processes. Sonographers create diagnostic images, take measurements, analyze the results, and prepare preliminary findings worksheet for the physician.

As a skilled cardiac sonographer, you are trained in echocardiography to understand the in-depth nature of the heart and how it translates to overall health. Day to day work includes preparing patients for their echocardiogram exams, understanding the reason for the exam and the patient’s presenting symptoms/history, performing complete echocardiograms (including regular transthoracic exams and stress echocardiograms), assisting cardiologist with transesophageal echocardiograms and other invasive cardiac exams. Using specific imaging tools such as 2D and 3D images of the heart and Doppler blood flow imaging to assess the heart’s function. Cardiac sonographers will be competent in starting IV’s for contrast use during an exam. Cardiac sonographers will also be competent in putting together the exam’s measurements/findings and creating a preliminary report for the cardiologist. All of these skills are a crucial part in helping the care team make an accurate diagnosis for the patient.