The job title “ultrasound technician” covers a wide variety of activities and medical procedures. Though you may associate it with imaging, particularly prenatal imaging, there is much more to the field. It is a multi-faceted career choice with a number options and specialties. Let’s take a look at some of the ultrasound technician jobs that are out there. Having a good sense in advance of what is available makes it easier to plan your education and job search approaches and even to decide whether being an ultrasound technician is a good career choice for you in general.
Here is a list of some common ultrasound and sonography job types:
Vascular Ultrasound
This career area involves using ultrasound for analysis of blood vessels. This area is often important in emergency medicine.
Neurosonology
As the name suggests, this has to do with neurology. Neurologists and brain researches utilize ultrasound techniques in their imaging and analysis of the brain and nervous system. They need technical professionals who can perform these kinds of scans.
Obstetric and gynecological sonographers:
This is an area that people commonly associate with ultrasound, imagining of babies in the fetal state and so on. Indeed that was one of the first uses of ultrasound is still one of the more common context in which it occurs. But it involves more than fetal imaging – it involves general gynecological imaging for a variety of diagnostic and procedural purposes.
Echocardiography
Another popular field. Ultrasound technician jobs in echocardiography focus specifically on the heart. This specialty is also used in emergency medicine as well as ordinary diagnostic cardio procedures.
Ocular Ultrasound
This type of ultrasound technician job involves assisting eye doctors. Ultrasound is often used in cataract surgery. In a process called phacoemulsification, cataracts are removed by ultrasonic means so that intraocular lenses may be implanted.
Mammography
Sonographic imaging of women’s’ breasts. This can be very helpful in diagnosing and treating breast cancer as well as for many other conditions.
Therapeutic Ultrasound
Involves using ultrasound for therapeutic rather than graphical/exploratory purposes. This usage of ultrasonic technology is somewhat newer than sonography. It is being used increasingly in a number of medical categories.
Dental Ultrasound
Dental ultrasound technician jobs are good ones to consider if you’re just starting out and have limited experience or certification credentials. The use of ultrasound in dentistry ranges from teeth cleaning to involved dental and periodontal imaging, so there’s a range of skill level required.
These are only some of the specialty areas to be found in this varied field of medical technological application. This is an expanding industry and it is likely that even more ultrasound technician jobs and job types will open up in the near future. It is advisable to browse the web or the library and get a good overall sense of the breadth and diversity of job types available in ultrasound before you begin your educational process. Pick the one that interests you the most and work with that as a goal.