Talk about irony. On the same day that the Register-Herald Reporter in West Virginia has an article about a bill expected to be signed by that state’s governor requiring abortion providers to offer their patients a pre-procedure sonogram (heartily endorsed by pro-lifers), a Boston newspaper runs an editorial regarding the use of prenatal ...

Just in case you're one of the two or three sonographers who haven't heard, musculoskeletal (MSK) sonography is growing rapidly throughout the world. Its use in Australia, Asia and Europe has been well established for years (partly due to the limited availability of competing modalities such as MRI). However, the use of MSK sonography in the ...

The title of the article read ''Woman bleeds to death after doctor accidentally punctures jugular while inserting a drip - and no blood is available for transfusion''- clearly a tragic result of a relatively minor procedure gone terribly wrong. Two unfortunate situations combined to cause the death of this young British woman: Namely, the ...

I recently received the brochure and registration materials for the 2008 Society of Radiologists in Ultrasound's Annual Meeting. I was somewhat surprised to have received the brochure, because historically the SRU has generally not been very receptive to non-radiologists. In fact, according to the SRU website, http://www.sru.org/, the Society is ...

A colleague recently shared with me a short video that appears on www.youtube.com that describes the potential to use the piezoelectric effect as a form of alternative energy. Sonographers know that the ''piezoelectric effect'' describes the ability of certain materials to generate an electric charge in response to applied mechanical pressure ...

In case you haven't heard, the American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography (ARDMS) has announced that starting in Spring 2009, a new Sonography Principles and Instrumentation (SPI) examination will be made available. Before all of you who are already certified have a panic attack, I'll state up-front that active registrants who ...

I recently received the results of the Society of Diagnostic Medical Sonography's 2008 Sonographer Salary and Benefits Survey. Every few years the SDMS does a survey and provides its membership with the results---it's a nice benefit of being an SDMS member. The results contained in the 87-page survey are rather detailed with data provided ...

For the past several years I've been visiting high schools (and occasionally elementary schools) to teach students about diagnostic medical sonography and the role of the sonographer. Although the primary objective of these trips is to encourage students to consider pursuing DMS careers, I spend the majority of the time just educating them about ...

Last week the Jefferson Ultrasound Research and Education Institute (my employer) held it's annual Leading Edge in Diagnostic Ultrasound conference in Atlantic City, NJ. This was the 28th annual meeting and I felt very much like a ''seasoned alumni'' (read: old) since I've been to this meeting for the last 25 years. The meeting director, Dr. Barry ...

A change in the labeling of Definity and Optison is the direct result of concerted efforts by the echocardiology community. Chalk one up for the good guys! In a rare move, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has agreed to relax its warning about the possible risks of the two commercially available ultrasound contrast agents, ...