2010 SDMS Conference in Denver, Colorado

Hello, I’m Charlotte Henningsen and I’m here at the exhibit hall grand opening at the SDMS annual conference in Denver, Colorado. And by the way, I’m the current president of SDMS. I’m also the chair of the sonography department at Florida Hospital College of Health Sciences in Orlando. Don’t you want to see what’s in the exhibit hall? Come with me!

I’m in front of the SDMS pavilion here in the exhibit hall. Notice all the products that SDMS has to sell at a discounted rate as part of member benefits. We’ve got CME products. We have logo items. We have pride items. There’s just a wealth of things for our members to purchase as they’re here at the SDMS annual conference.

What the attendees are saying …

Question: What are the benefits of being a member of SDMS?

Cathy Scholl, Sonography Educator: Oh, there are so many. Keeping abreast of all the new technologies, meeting new sonographers from all over the United States, and just supporting the profession as it grows.

Lauren Merritt, Sonography Student at FHCHS: This is my second time coming to annual conference. I have received a discount and a grant for both times I’ve attended. It’s amazing. I’ve basically attended the conference for free and gotten all this exposure to all of these things that I wouldn’t see elsewhere.

Brenda Hoopingarner, Sonography Educator: My benefits as an SDMS member is of course, attending the conferences at a discounted rate, and all the wonderful products that you can get online. I mean, there are CMEs, you have opportunities for insurance, education, stuff like that. You can buy products. The pride products to promote ultrasound awareness week, which is important. And a big one for us is our students, obviously, can apply for the foundation grant to attend the conferences.

What the vendors are saying …

Question: How do your products help sonographers?

Paul Christensen, Philips Healthcare: We build ultrasound systems that are designed to be easy to use and improve image quality and diagnostic confidence.

Robert DePalma, Medison: From the highest tech products that we make down to the more affordable 3D products, down to the handhelds, every one of these products is meant to be ergonomic, easy to use, easy to learn and then get you the best images you could possibly get.

Dave Fortney, Siemens Healthcare: This product in particular, the S2000 was designed with sonographers in mind. There are many ways that we have it ergonomically developed for the system itself: articulating monitor arms, user interfaces that move all over the place, as well as technologies in the system itself that make it easier to use and less work on the sonographers as they scan.

Question: What do you hope to achieve here at the SDMS conference?

Paul Christensen, Philips Healthcare: Well, the SDMS conference is always a great meeting for us. A lot of enthusiasm a lot of excitement, we get a lot of opportunity to show our products to a lot of sonographers and up-and-coming students.

Robert DePalma, Medison: Well, the SDMS conference is very prestigious and brings a lot of students here. We would like the students to see what the wave of the future looks like. We’d like them to know that this product line never stays still.

Dave Fortney, Siemens Healthcare: I think the best thing to be at the SDMS is to have access to all of the sonographers and the students and the teachers and educators to let us know not only how we’re doing but where we need to go in the future to help drive ultrasound and make it a better place to work.

What the students are saying …

Question: Why did you decide to become a sonography student?

I’m with Lauren Merritt. Lauren is one of my students at Florida Hospital College of Health Sciences in Orlando. She’s in our AS degree program. So Lauren, why did you decide to become a sonography student?

Lauren Merritt, Sonography Student at FHCHS: There’s so much to the program that I love. I’ve always loved the technology, and I’ve always wanted to do something in the medical field, so this is an amazing combination of the two for me. It just gets better and better every day and more interesting.

Sonography Students, Valencia AS Program: I love the medical field. I’ve always been very interested in it and the technology behind ultrasound is fascinating. I’ve always wanted to try it.

Question: Are you interested in pursuing your Bachelor’s Degree?

Sonography Students, Valencia AS Program: Yes, absolutely!

Lauren Merritt, Sonography Student at FHCHS: I absolutely am. I want to receive a Bachelor’s from my current school, Florida Hospital College of Health Sciences.

Why is a Bachelor’s degree important?

Question: Why is it important for sonographers to hold a Bachelor’s degree?

Cathy Scholl, Sonography Educator: I think it opens the possibility for furthering their professional opportunities, such as becoming department managers, also becoming educators and also getting involved in sales and applications.

Brenda Hoopingarner, Sonography Educator: I think it’s very important for a sonographer to have a Bachelor’s degree. I think that it displays professionalism. I think it also gives that person an opportunity to earn additional credits and have a well-rounded background in education and I think it gives them the opportunity to move up on supervisory types of roles and just an all well-rounded ultrasound individual.

Charlotte Henningsen, Sonography Chair at FHCHS: I see you have a Bachelor’s Degree. How has that helped you in your career?

Shannon Boswell, Past President of SDMS: Well, when I was in school, I thought I was just going to start out in sonography and just do sonography. What I did not anticipate is that I would be working as a manager and so the Bachelor’s degree, I think, gave me the extra tools I needed to be successful as a manager of an ultrasound department.

Do what you love …

Question: Why did you decide to become an educator?

Cathy Scholl, Sonography Educator: I absolutely love sonography and given the opportunity to share that and add people into the profession was a great honor for me.

Brenda Hoopingarner, Sonography Educator: I think the reason I became an educator is to give back. I mean, I was an individual who learned ultrasound on the job and that is not the way to learn it. It was very time-consuming. I struggled a lot. And I think I realized at that point that it was important to educate the youth and help them understand there is a proper way to learn it first before they actually go to a clinical site and learn it that way

Question: Can you tell me what your path was to becoming a sonographer?

Shannon Boswell, Past President of SDMS: I actually started as an engineering major in my college and after a year and a half, decided that wasn’t the path for me. And the more I learned about ultrasound, the more interesting it sounded. And I bought it hook-line-and-sinker after that.

Question: What do you love most about sonography?

Shannon Boswell, Past President of SDMS: I think the patients – dealing with the patients, being kind of a problem solver or whatever issues that they have. And hearing their stories and bonding with them. That’s something that I really enjoy the most about sonography.

What does the future hold?

Question: What changes do you foresee in the sonography industry?

Shannon Boswell, Past President of SDMS: Right now I think we’re going through one of the largest jumps in technology than we’ve had in quite some time. And I think between the fusion sonography and 3D/4D, I think that’s really going to change the way we do our work.

Paul Christensen, Philips Healthcare: We really see ultrasound growing a lot in the volume imaging. Where we see ultrasound being brought in line with other imaging modalities like CT and MRI and its use as far as total volume capabilities.

Robert DePalma, Medison: I think a lot of the changes we’re going to see have to do with EHR/EMR and our link to that. We’re going to see being able to use the best products that we have guiding the imaging to the electronic medical records which can’t really be done today. PACS and EMRs don’t play well together. We’re working on methods to tie them all together without increasing the size of the memory necessary to do it. So this is going to be terrific and we’ll be showing that very shortly. We’ll be showing that at RSNA.

Dave Fortney, Siemens Healthcare: I think in the industry and us as a company itself, one of the things you’re going to see are user-design systems that are easier to use for the sonographers themselves, less steps as they scan, as well as designing the physical aspect of the system to have less wear and tear on the sonographers themselves. And things are getting smaller all the time, right? This is the ACUSON P10 and you’re going to see an increase in downsizing equipment and easier to use.

Where are you in it all?

Charlotte Henningsen, Sonography Chair at FHCHS: Well, it’s been a great night and the exhibit hall is closing, but I just want to remind you that next year’s meeting is going to be in Atlanta, Georgia. I hope to see you there!