Helping Educators Keep Up With Ultrasound Advances

The changing nature of ultrasound means a lot of things: better images can lead to seeing more, knowing more, and ultimately helping a clinician make a more accurate diagnosis. But, it also means this familiar technology is getting more and more complex. Thus, excellent instruction for operators is a must to help ensure they get the most information from their devices. This focus on education has been a mantra of GE Healthcare for more than ten years.

"GE really has a commitment to furthering ultrasound education so sonographers can make the best use of their devices and really get out of those machines all they have to offer," says Cynthia Edwards, GE Healthcare's ultrasound training coordinator.

And, it's not just GE's customers who have been taking advantage of GE's education commitment. While GE Healthcare does train about 1,000 customers a year on its specific products at its facility outside Milwaukee, Wisconsin, it also offers general/clinical online training to sonographers worldwide. The 18 continuing education classes are free for any sonographer to further their understanding and education in the field of ultrasound.

The free classes amount to approximately 165,000 continuing education credits earned by sonographers each year. According to the Society of Diagnostic Medical Sonography, the crediting agency, GE’s free education program provides the most continuing education credits worldwide to ultrasound professionals.

Within the past few years a new offshoot has been added to this strong education focus – teaching not just operators but ultrasound teachers as well. The next wave of ultrasound operators need innovative techniques and current information, which means they need some of the most informed instructors on the market. That' s where the Ultrasound Educator' s Summit comes in.

"We feel it's important to bring these educators together to learn from each other, learn ways to be innovative in the classroom and improve their programs at their institutions," says Edwards.

As you'll see in the following video, educators from across country believe instruction techniques are such an important aspect that each year for the past four years they've been paying their own way to come to the summit, organized by Seattle University, to learn current ultrasound teaching methods.

SOURCE: GE Healthcare