The Evolving Role of Ultrasound Technicians
Only a few decades ago, ultrasound technicians had a sole task they focused on: that of showing new parents their fetus’ heart beat and ensuring the new baby would not suffer from any abnormalities in the womb. However, recent leaps in science have found a new need for ultrasound technicians, from mammograms of young women to a new form of cancer therapy for sufferers of prostate cancer.
Ultrasound technicians typically focus solely on the well-being of new babies, but these recent evolutions within their sonography world has led to give them a heightened role at the forefront of cancer studies. Young women now come into ultrasound rooms to ensure that a lump they have on their breast is nothing more than a calcification instead of a cancerous tumor. This has become more and more common around the nation, as women under the age of 40 are typically urged not to have mammograms because of the dangers radiology can do to their bodies at a young age. Ultrasounds have therefore presented the perfect alternative for mammograms for younger women and the digitalization helps to focus better on the presence of a tumor. Mammograms at a young age are not nearly as helpful.
This type of discovery in technology has resulted in different courses which ultrasound technicians must take. While the procedure is the same, there is still a difference in dealing with women who are not pregnant and are instead worried about the possibility of cancer. Additionally, the presence of men who are coming to ultrasound technicians for treatment of prostate cancer is a wide stretch away from the original use of ultrasounds. However, this treatment is still not available in the United States, and therefore American men travel to Mexico to have this treatment performed. High-intensity focused ultrasound (or HIFU) attacks the cancerous tissues by heating the prostate to temperatures near boiling without surgery.
Many American doctors will now perform this treatment, leading to more ultrasound technicians who are involved in the process. Because it is not available in the United States, this means that many times companies will have to travel across the border in order to treat many patients. Since this procedure is not yet legal, it is not taught in ultrasound technician schools, but is instead learned on the job. While currently doctors are in charge of these procedures, ultrasound technicians will merge into the picture once the treatment passes legal ramifications within the country.
Modern technology is constantly finding new uses for ultrasounds, leading to new roles for many ultrasound technicians as the years go by. However, the skills they learn throughout their education and early years of their career are skills which will be applicable to nearly any type of curve ball which may come their way throughout the evolution of technology.
