As an diagnostic medical sonographer , the images you generate can mean the difference between life and death. Most ultrasound techs finish their training in under 3 years and are able to find terrific job opportunities as soon as they get certified. Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels. Like many professions, there are multiple ways for someone to become an ultrasound tech.
Going back to school is never easy for anyone, but this field provides something for everyone. You can pursue four-year ultrasound tech degrees or certificates at a community college or technical school. The latter typically offers quicker and more affordable education opportunities. Already working in an allied health career? After completing your classroom and lab hours, ultrasound tech training is accompanied by an internship.
Instead of pursuing a four-year degree, many people save serious money by attending technical schools. Not only are the rates more affordable than universities, but financial aid options are still available.
Get your ultrasound tech certification and start working without the pressure of owing tens of thousands of dollars in student loans. The U. Much of this comes down to aging Baby Boomers. Photo by cottonbro from Pexels. B ecoming an ultrasound tech involves ongoing educational opportunities, and your employer may encourage you to attend seminar training and classes. These educational experiences are great opportunities to expand your knowledge and skill sets, which can come in handy when applying for higher-paying positions in the future.
Back then, every scientific paper about US pointed out there is not enough research on this topic, or at least not enough good research … and not much has changed. A review of ultrasound for rotator cuff tendinopathy cited below found only six trials, all poor quality. It practically defines the experience of going to a physiotherapist.
Everyone has had that cold gel slapped on an injury, and felt that tingling, penetrating … placebo? The disconnect between the popularity of US and the more or less total lack of informative research is troubling. A handful of good studies is a joke for a therapy that is worth literally billions of dollars in the marketplace. How can that much therapy be sold without a satisfactory body of evidence that it works? This does not mean that US never works for anyone.
It does mean that it has been prescribed and sold to patients for decades with unjustified confidence. And that is not cool. In most cases I consider ultrasound less than useless — that's minutes wasted that could be used doing something that might actually help. Ultrasound is an unusually easy treatment to test scientifically. Just compare results in patients who received real ultrasound to patients who get a fake instead!
And yet there are just a few dozen such experiments in the scientific literature, and most of them are seriously flawed. Conclusions from evidence reviews like this one from van der Windt et al are typical:. As yet, there seems to be little evidence to support the use of ultrasound therapy in the treatment of musculoskeletal disorders.
The large majority of 13 randomized placebo-controlled trials with adequate methods did not support the existence of clinically important or statistically significant differences in favour of ultrasound therapy.
Several reviews give a nod towards some ray of hope. Standard therapeutic ultrasound probably does little or nothing for most people. A sliver of hope remains that some specific conditions will respond to ultrasound with just the right settings.
ESWT is high tech. It can be painfully intense. Think of it as fancy ultrasound with a no-pain-no-gain twist. Therapeutic ultrasound … has fallen out of favor as research has shown a lack of efficacy and a lack of scientific basis for proposed biophysical effects.
Not only that, but ultrasound has found new life in the marketplace as shockwave therapy — faster, stronger waves, with a bigger price tag! Where are the scientific review papers confirming this marvellous triumph of US over whatever ails you? Where is the data to support such a specific promise of therapeutic success?
For example, ultrasound-guided needle biopsy helps physicians see the position of a needle while it is being guided to a selected target, such as a mass or a tumor in the breast. Also, ultrasound is used for real-time imaging of the location of the tip of a catheter as it is inserted in a blood vessel and guided along the length of the vessel.
It can also be used for minimally invasive surgery to guide the surgeon with real-time images of the inside of the body. Therapeutic or interventional ultrasound. Therapeutic ultrasound produces high levels of acoustic output that can be focused on specific targets for the purpose of heating, ablating, or breaking up tissue. HIFU is being investigated as a method for modifying or destroying diseased or abnormal tissues inside the body e.
Either ultrasound or MRI is used to identify and target the tissue to be treated, guide and control the treatment in real time, and confirm the effectiveness of the treatment. HIFU is currently FDA approved for the treatment of uterine fibroids, to alleviate pain from bone metastases, and most recently for the ablation of prostate tissue.
HIFU is also being investigated as a way to close wounds and stop bleeding, to break up clots in blood vessels, and to temporarily open the blood brain barrier so that medications can pass through. Diagnostic ultrasound is generally regarded as safe and does not produce ionizing radiation like that produced by x-rays.
Still, ultrasound is capable of producing some biological effects in the body under specific settings and conditions.
For this reason, the FDA requires that diagnostic ultrasound devices operate within acceptable limits. The FDA, as well as many professional societies, discourage the casual use of ultrasound e. The following are examples of current research projects funded by NIBIB that are developing new applications of ultrasound that are already in use or that will be in use in the future:.
ARFI is a new technique developed by researchers at Duke University with NIBIB support that uses ultrasound elastography to differentiate liver tumors from healthy tissue, as well as identify the presence of fibrosis. This non-invasive method could reduce unnecessary liver biopsies, which can be painful and sometimes dangerous.
Image on left courtesy of Katharine Nightengale, Ph. Low-cost, miniature ultrasound. Just like computers, medical ultrasound imagers have been getting smaller and smaller. One of the biggest challenges is connecting the ultrasound transducer at the tip of the probe to the extensive computer chip-based signal processing and imaging electronics. The Vscan is a palm-size ultrasound scanner, which has both anatomical imaging and color Doppler capability.
Treatments that do not actively involve you in your care may make you feel like you have very little control over the management of your injury. Many physical therapists continue to use ultrasound and many feel that it adds positive outcomes in the treatment of many conditions.
But is it really the placebo effect? The placebo effect is a phenomenon where you perceive an improvement in your condition simply because something is being done to you. Your physical therapist tells you that ultrasound treatments can make you better, and therefore you start to feel better after receiving the treatments. If your condition improves because of the placebo effect, that is fine. But some professionals argue that using the placebo effect in the treatment of conditions is unethical.
In general, ultrasound is a safe treatment that has been used in physical therapy for many years. It provides heat to deep structures in the body, and it is thought that this heat helps improve that way that your body heals. Studies may not really support the use of ultrasound in physical therapy. If your PT decides to use ultrasound as part of your rehab program, you may wish to question if it is absolutely necessary for you.
If you do receive an ultrasound, you should also be actively involved in your physical therapy plan of care. You should make sure that your physical therapist helps you understand your condition and that he or she offers you strategies that you can apply to help improve your condition independently. Ultrasound may be a treatment modality that you are exposed to during your physical therapy treatments.
Research calls into question its efficacy, so if your PT does use it, be sure to understand the goals of treatment and the necessity of the treatment. Get exercise tips to make your workouts less work and more fun. Overview of therapeutic ultrasound applications and safety considerations. J Ultrasound Med. Effects of placebo-controlled continuous and pulsed ultrasound treatments on carpal tunnel syndrome: a randomized trial.
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