Diagnostic Medical Sonography Careers

Opportunities should be favorable for those seeking diagnostic medical sonography careers because sonography is becoming an increasingly attractive alternative to radiologic procedures, as patients seek safer treatment methods. Hospitals will remain the principal employer of diagnostic medical sonographers. However, ultrasound tech career employment is expected to grow more rapidly in offices of physicians and in medical and diagnostic laboratories, including diagnostic imaging centers.

• Cardiovascular Sonographer: Perform electrocardiograms (EKGs), ambulatory monitoring, and graded exercise diagnostic examinations, as well as basic x-ray and laboratory procedures. Cardiovascular technologists are employed in hospitals, cardiologists' offices, cardiology mobile units, and many other health care facilities.
   
• Abdominal Sonographer: Inspect a patient’s abdominal cavity to help diagnose and treat conditions primarily involving the gallbladder, bile ducts, kidneys, liver, pancreas, and spleen.
   
• Obstetric-Gynecological Sonographer: Specialize in the study of the female reproductive system. Included in the discipline is one of the more well-known uses of sonography: examining the fetus of a pregnant woman to track the baby’s growth and health.
   
• Neurosonographer: Focus on the nervous system, including the brain. In neonatal care, neurosonographers study and diagnose neurological and nervous system disorders in premature infants. They also may scan blood vessels to check for abnormalities indicating a stroke in infants diagnosed with sickle-cell anemia.
   
• Mammographer: Sonography aids mammography in the detection of breast cancer. Breast sonography can also track tumors, blood supply conditions, and assist in the accurate biopsy of breast tissue. Breast sonographers use high-frequency transducers, made exclusively to study breast tissue.