Sonographer

A sonographer, or ultrasonographer, is a healthcare professional, frequently a radiographer but may be any healthcare professional with the appropriate training, who specialise in the use of ultrasonic imaging devices to produce diagnostic images, scans, videos, or 3D volumes of anatomy and diagnostic data. The requirements for clinical practice vary greatly by country. Sonography requires specialized education and skills to view, analyze and modify the scan to optimize the information in the image. Because of the high levels of decisional latitude and diagnostic input, sonographers have a high degree of responsibility in the diagnostic process. Many countries require that medical sonographers have professional certification. Sonographers must understand ultrasound physics, cross sectional anatomy, physiology and pathology.

Sonographer is the preferred term for the specialised healthcare worker who performs diagnostic medical sonography, or diagnostic ultrasound. The alternative term ultrasonographer is in much less common use. The terms ultrasound technologist and ultrasound technician are deprecated.

The Australasian Sonographers Association (ASA) formed in 1992 in response to the desire of sonographers across Australia for an organisation that represents and considers issues important to sonographers in the Australian healthcare environment. The ASA now has more than 4000 individual member sonographers, and about 40 corporate members. The ASA has pledged to pursue high standards within the practice of Medical Sonography. The ASA has a structure of a board of directors and multiple representative branches in all Australian states.

Australian sonographers must be accredited by the Australasian Sonographers Accreditation Registry (ASAR). ASAR’s brief is to accredit and re-accredit on a regular basis, post-graduate ultrasound programs offered by Australian Universities (and the DMU), and to establish the criteria against which those programs and any other future Australian and New Zealand programs are to be judged. In addition a register of accredited (AMS) and student (ASS) sonographers is maintained and their continuing professional development (CPD) activities monitored and recorded.

The Health Insurance Commissison in association with the Australasian Sonographers Accreditation Registry (ASAR) introduced in 2002 a program of accreditation and continuing professional education for sonographers. The ASAR recognises registration with the Australian Orthoptic Board as appropriate accreditation for orthoptists to undertake sonography in relation to ocular structures.

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