Category: Blogs

The United States has a glaring health problem.

Among 11 developed countries (think our Canadian neighbors, European friends, and Australia), the U.S. has the highest maternal mortality rate. For every 100,000 U.S. births, 17 women die from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth—a rate that doubles that of most other high-income countries. The maternal mortality rate in the U.S. has been rising for more than 20 years, with rural communities experiencing some of the highest death tolls.*

Here’s the thing, two-thirds of those maternal deaths are preventable. Let that sink in a minute. Two-thirds equals 11 out of every 17. All those deaths are preventable.

We’re going to talk about how we can prevent those unnecessary mortalities, but before we offer solutions, we should gain a better understanding of the problem. For rural patients, the issues leading to maternal mortality are well-documented and can be summed up in one simple phrase: access to care.

Defining Access to Care Challenges

Access to care is defined by three main components: entry into the healthcare system, an adequate supply of services available, and timely provision of care. Rural patients face challenges in each of these areas.

Entry into the Healthcare System

When we look at the first component, entry into the healthcare system, transportation is the key issue. A lack of public transportation, greater geographic distances, and subsequently higher travel costs often hinder rural patients from seeking healthcare, leading to worse health outcomes. Even when transportation is available, longer travel times can cause patients to be too late for certain medications or procedures. This “lateness” is easy to understand when we consider more than 50% of rural women have to travel more than 30 minutes to reach the nearest hospital with obstetric services.

Supply of Services

The second component in access to care is the supply of services available. Unfortunately, provider availability in rural areas is lacking. Today, only 12% of the nation’s physicians practice in rural communities, and projections indicate the shortage will only increase in the future. For pregnant patients, the outlook is even bleaker. As of 2014, 54% of rural counties qualified as “OB deserts,” meaning they lack a hospital with obstetrical services. In a 2017 study, researchers discovered just how large some of these OB deserts can be, finding some rural patients have to travel 200 miles before reaching the nearest OB/GYN.

Timely Provision of Care

The third component is the timely provision of care. Whether patients are waiting for hours in the emergency department, for days or weeks to see a physician, or for years to see a specialist, that wait comes at a high cost. Prolonged wait times are associated with increased morbidity and mortality, and patients who do eventually get treated are often well beyond the most effective timeframe for care. Can you guess who experiences the longest wait times? OB/GYN patients.

In each of these three components, rural patients face more challenges accessing healthcare than their urban counterparts. Now that we have a good understanding of the problem, we can turn our attention to the solution.

Defining Telemedicine

If you’ve been paying any attention to healthcare trends over the past few years, then you know one buzzword that may make a significant impact: telemedicine.

Defined simply, telemedicine uses technology to deliver healthcare at a distance. It is more focused than “telehealth,” which encompasses communication and documentation technologies, health apps, and a bunch of other great stuff. Our focus here is telemedicine, which must involve a clinician providing medical services to a patient. Telemedicine has changed a lot over the last few years in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but one thing has remained the same: the fundamental goal of telemedicine is to improve access to care.

Overcoming Access to Care Challenges with Telemedicine

Telemedicine can take a variety of forms, but we’ll primarily discuss how it can help us overcome access to care challenges for pregnant patients in rural areas. Fortunately, a variety of programs are already in place across the U.S., bringing prenatal and postnatal care to rural patients with great results. Let’s look at the three components of access to care again and see how telemedicine works to solve the problems we’ve identified.

Telemedicine and Entry into the Healthcare System

We know transportation is the main problem when it comes to entry into the healthcare system. Telemedicine solves this problem by cutting it out of the equation. It poses the question, “What if you didn’t have to travel at all?” Studies have evaluated the use of video calls both for fetal cardiac evaluations and for simply connecting regional specialists with local providers. In both scenarios, patients experienced a decrease in travel time and expenses—some patients even saw a ninefold decrease in costs!

Telemedicine and Supply of Services

Video calls are good for some things, but patients—especially pregnant ones—still need to see care providers in person. Telemedicine can help with that too. We know the second component in access to care is the supply of services available, and we know doctors are (and will continue to be) scarce in rural areas. Telemedicine provides a couple of different solutions to this problem.

The first is the “hub and spokes” model. The idea here is that regional specialists, the “hub,” can provide information, expertise, and care through local providers, the “spokes.” For example, one program partners the Medical University of South Carolina’s (MUSC) maternal-fetal specialists with local doctors to co-manage care for patients with high-risk pregnancies. The program reduced premature birth rates as well as neonatal and maternal mortality rates. Another program in Arkansas, abbreviated ANGELS, also pairs board-certified maternal-fetal medicine specialists with local providers for co-managed healthcare. The ANGELS program is supported by a 24/7 call center staffed by nurses who triage patients and facilitate transportation to appropriate facilities. ANGELS has reduced healthcare costs, infant mortality, and maternal complications across the state.

The second answer telemedicine brings to the supply of services problem is ongoing counseling and education. Whether in one-on-one meetings or group classes, telemedicine connects patients directly with local and regional providers. For instance, new parents may have continuing questions about breastfeeding. Those experiencing postpartum depression may need counseling. And patients trying to conceive can get expert advice, setting themselves up for a healthy pregnancy.

Telemedicine and Timely Provision of Care

Last, but not least, we know that long wait times often stand between patients and the care they need. Telemedicine has answers for timeliness of care too. Some conditions that don’t require an office visit can be easily treated through a patient portal or chat message, enabling doctors to respond and care for patients quicker than if they had to schedule an appointment. If a visit is needed, telemedicine can provide some immediate assistance as well as travel instructions.

Telemedicine also solves for timeliness of care through remote monitoring. Remote monitoring allows patients to receive care from the comfort of home and enables doctors to quickly check in with patients to ensure medication is working and symptoms haven’t changed or worsened. In practice, this means patients with gestational diabetes can receive support for insulin checks and get help with meal planning. Those with high blood pressure can participate in remote medication monitoring, sparing them the stress and difficulty of an in-office visit. And patients with preeclampsia can be more regularly checked up on for blurred vision or headaches that indicate medical intervention is needed.

Telemedicine and Additional Patient Benefits

Telemedicine provides answers for each of our three components, meaning we can solve a lot of our access to care challenges for rural patients. The great news is, telemedicine provides other benefits too. One recent study linked telemedicine with fewer follow-up appointments, finding only 6% of telemedicine patients needed a follow-up, compared to 13% of those who went to the doctor’s office and 20% of those who visited an emergency room. It’s also been proposed that telemedicine fosters a quicker recovery because patients can stay at home, in a supportive and known environment. For pregnant patients, several studies have linked telemedicine to lower prenatal stress and higher patient satisfaction, all while reducing the number of in-clinic appointments needed and maintaining current standards of care.

Solving the Problem

Our country’s glaring health problem could be a thing of the past. We understand the problems that make access to care such a challenge for our rural communities, and how we can solve them with telemedicine. Armed with this knowledge, we can make a big impact on the two-thirds of maternal deaths we know are preventable. We’ve seen how successful telemedicine programs can be and the impact they have in their counties and states. It’s our turn, and we’re up for the challenge. Are you?

If solving for access to care sounds like a challenge you want to take on, we might be a great fit for each other. We’ve developed an advanced SaaS solution that applies telemedicine to prenatal ultrasound: Telescan®

Note: Maternal mortality rates are highest among rural communities and minority groups. Here, we focus specifically on solutions for the rural demographic. While telemedicine is also helpful in solving maternal mortality among minority groups, there are additional issues at play in minority demographics that deserve further discussion in a separate article. Stay tuned, we are on it..

Assessing the likelihood of preterm labor has always been an important part of ultrasound examinations. Reason being is that premature births are the cause of nearly 70% of neonatal/fetal deaths. Although only about 12% of births in the United States are preterm and occur before 37 weeks, this is still a very prominent issue for technicians and physicians today. Furthermore, when a mother carries twins or triplets the risk of preterm pregnancy jump to nearly 55% and 94% respectively.

There are a variety of factors that can increase a woman’s risk for preterm labor; these include high blood pressure during pregnancy, chronic conditions such as heart disease or diabetes, being younger than 17 years old, smoking or using street drugs, and previously having a preterm baby. However, there is a better way than just taking note of these factors, it’s the cervical length assessment.

Methods have ranged from transabdominal to translabial or trannsperineal, but transvaginal has since become the most widely adopted and accurate method for cervical length assessment. With this approach there is no need to expand the bladder (leading to cervical lengthing) like in the transabdominal method and we get a much clearer image than the translabial approach without the bowel gases being an issue. The risk for preterm labor is inversely correlated to cervical length so it’s imperative that the image is clear and the measurements are accurate.

This is means the shorter the length of the cervix, the greater change of preterm labor. The presence of a “positive predictive value” such as a measurement of 25mm is taken into account along with the patient’s pretest probability factors (high blood pressure, diabetes, etc.). If the pretest risk factors confirm a risk for preterm labor, the physician and patient can then take the proper precautions to prepare for preterm labor such as therapeutic regimens.

This can be a complicated puzzle to solve as no one factor is a direct cause of preterm labor, but by continuing to evolve our methods of assessment, we can better serve those 12% of patient’s. That’s why we are particularly excited for the initiatives being taken in our community right now.

Coming soon with be the Preterm Labor Assessment Training where we are looking forward to working with The University of Texas Dell Medical School as we educate and train physicians, sonographers, and nurses alike on The March of Dimes Preterm Labor Assessment Toolkit on March 28th. As a part of our core values, we believe this to be an important event for healthcare professionals as we continue to educate others and learn how to the deliver premium care to all women.

As fellow sonographers, we know this career path is no joke. Competitive programs, tough coursework, and lots of clinical hours are big hurdles to overcome. And when all of that is over, there are… board exams.

Don’t freak out. Board exams are important milestones, and we know they can feel daunting, but you can approach them confidently. Here, we’ve gathered our best study tips, test tricks, and preparation strategies to help you get over the finish line.

First, let’s review what board exams are and why they’re important.

The Basics of Certification

Board exams are administered by the American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography (ARDMS). Passing boards are how you get credentialed and receive fancy letters like RDMS, RDCS, and RVT to put after your name.

The goal of certification is to establish a baseline for quality care in the field of sonography and to make sure credentialed sonographers are continuing to learn and apply best practices. Certification elevates our field and ensures that no matter where a patient gets an ultrasound, they’re getting the same level of care and competency. In short, it keeps us sharp and our patients safe.

The SPI Exam

Whether you’ve already got a specialty in mind or are still honing in on your favorite types of ultrasound scans, one thing is certain: you’ll have to take the Sonography Principles & Instrumentation (SPI) exam first. Also known as the ultrasound physics registry, the SPI tests your knowledge of physics principles, ultrasound instruments, and how to use them.

This test is a prerequisite to every specialty. There’s no getting around it, so we recommend taking it right after you complete your physics course. You will need to pass the class with a C grade or higher to sit for the exam, and yes, you can take this one while you’re still a student! Trust us, you don’t want all your hard-earned physics knowledge to slip away before you pass this exam, so get it scheduled and completed ASAP.

Specialty Exams

Once you pass the SPI, your next board exam will be for your ultrasound specialty. Passing both boards is what will earn you those fancy letters that signify you’re a credentialed sonographer. Specialty exams will test your knowledge, skill, and ability to recognize normal and abnormal findings within a particular area.

Each specialty exam has its own set of prerequisites, but they all require a Clinical Verification (CV) form from a sponsor sonographer. Your sponsor will work with you to practice your specialty ultrasounds and ensure you’re ready to take the test. If you already know what specialty you want to pursue, try to identify a mentor with those credentials who could act as your sponsor in the future!

The Five-Year Rule

You must pass both the SPI and your chosen specialty exam within a five-year period. It’s called the five-year rule, and it’s one of the reasons we recommend taking the SPI and specialty exam as soon as you can. You don’t want to stress yourself out by waiting until the last minute or let all your DMS program knowledge start to fade before you get these out of the way.

There is one caveat. The five-year rule does not apply to specialties under a credential you have already earned. For instance, if you have the RDMS credential with the AB specialty, you can go back at any time to earn breast, fetal echo, obstetrics & gynecology, or pediatric specialties. If you have the RDCS credential with an adult echo specialty, you can go back at any time to add fetal or pediatric echo.

How to Study for ARDMS Exams

Now that we understand board exams—and we know to take them as soon as possible—let’s look at our best tips for effective studying:

1. Prioritize it: We know studying gets old, but you must prioritize it. Get your test date scheduled and plan to spend time studying, even if it’s at the expense of a few social events.

2. Let it sink in: Cramming in too much information too fast overwhelms our brains. Study thoroughly, then take a break (especially between concepts) so you have time to process and commit the information to memory.

3. Aim to understand concepts: The test will use different words and phrases to test your knowledge. This can trip you up if you memorize definitions instead of studying for comprehension.

4. Study during scans: Use clinical hours and time scanning to remember the concepts you’re studying and recognize how they work together in real-life applications.

5. Use study strategies: Find a study strategy that works for you. You can try writing down concepts in your own words, ‘teaching’ a classmate or coworker, reviewing flashcards, and forming a study group with others taking the same test.

6. Get another perspective: Read about the same concept from a few different authors. Often, particular words or phrases will unlock the concept for you! Try review books (we recommend Julia Drose BA, RDMS, RDCS, RVT, FAIUM, FDMS, and Sidney K Edelman Ph.D.) or exchange notes with a classmate or coworker.

How to Practice for ARDMS Exams

Practice tests and questions are super helpful and should be part of your study schedule, especially as you get closer to your test date. Here are some of the best ways to practice:

1. Take ARDMS practice tests: These are available via the Application Center in your MY ARDMS account. You can familiarize yourself with the testing interface, get comfortable navigating the test, and get a good idea of the question-and-answer formats used.

2. Use review books: These books often have questions, quizzes, and practice tests throughout.

3. Ask your professor: If you’re struggling with a particular topic, ask your professor for additional test questions related to that topic. Chances are, they have a stash of test questions at their disposal to help you practice and reach comprehension.

4. Look online: Plenty of mock exams exist online, both in free and paid versions. Some of these are gold, and some aren’t worth your time—or money. Ask fellow students or coworkers which practice sites helped them most!

5. Get in the mood: As you get comfortable with practice tests, try to put yourself in a similar situation to your test environment and time yourself. If your schedule allows, practice how you’ll prepare the day of your test and then take a mock exam at your exact testing time.

How to Take ARDMS Exams

Speaking of, let’s talk about how to take these tests! Here are our recommendations:

1. Determine the best environment for you: Most exams are available to take at home now, so if you struggle with test anxiety, this might be a great way to lower your stress. If you are easily distracted, an in-person test might help you focus better.

2. Make a quick first pass: Your test is timed, so you don’t want to waste time feeling stuck. Read a question and mark your answer if you know it. If you don’t, flag it for further review and move on to the next question. The goal is to get through all the questions and answer the easy ones first, then return to think through the ones that stumped you.

3. Think it through: As you go back through the questions you haven’t answered yet, use strategies like the process of elimination to identify all the wrong answers. Even if you can only eliminate two out of four, a 50% chance of being right is better than a 25% chance of being right! And remember, if two answers mean the same thing, they both can’t be right, which means they’re both wrong.

4. Make your best guess: If none of the test’s answers match up with the one in your head, eliminate the ones you can and then make your best guess. Choose the answer that’s closest to what you were thinking originally.

5. And most importantly… trust yourself: You’ve studied hard. You know what you’re doing. Don’t second guess yourself, and don’t go back to change your answers. You’ve got this!

Additional Study Resources

We love free resources, and there are a few you won’t want to miss. ARDMS publishes content outlines for each test, so check out the ones that apply to you. If you’re considering the purchase of a study resource, look for published reviews before spending any money. And finally, don’t forget about BB Imaging’s free on-demand webinars! They provide real-world examples and pathology reviews.

In closing, we want to reiterate that we know studying and sitting for these exams is a lot of work. But we also know you can do it! Take advantage of these tips and resources and reach out if you have any questions.

P.S. Did you know BB Imaging has a team dedicated to helping our sonographers learn and grow? If you’re looking for scanning experience, growth resources, and a great workplace all in one, you can work (and study) with us!

Careers

With a new year, comes new hopes, dreams, and aspirations. Whether that be to run a marathon, complete that DIY project, or just better yourself as a person, America has always used the new year to make a new start. New Year’s resolutions are an exciting opportunity to challenge ourselves on what we think we’re capable of doing…that or they crash and burn within a week of trying. So how many of us succeed in staying resolute on our resolutions? How many of us make resolutions at all? We try and answer these questions and many more as we look into this beloved (or bemoaned) American tradition.

the FALLACY of failure

According to a study conducted by the Statistic Brain Research Institute, 45 percent of Americans usually make New Year’s Resolutions and only 8 percent actually achieve their resolutions. Disheartening as this may be, it may not be much of a surprise. The rhetoric used to making resolutions is often painted with a touch of sarcastic hopelessness as most people just hope to still be going to the gym after the first month. Still, we shouldn’t be discouraged by these statistics however dismal they may appear, for this is not telling the whole story.

Although only 8 percent succeed per yer,  49 percent of people who make resolutions achieve infrequent success from a year to year basis. That means that for those who try, they often do see the fruits of their labor in varying degrees of magnitude. So although you may not have run the marathon this year, you did however train for 4 months, run farther than you’ve ever run before, and increased your overall health, preparing you for next year’s race. This is what the 8 percent does not take into account. Failure is a frequent occurrence in our lives and is only made more visible by New Year’s resolutions. It’s by learning how to move beyond the initial failure that we reach goals we would have never put down on paper to begin with.

the bright side

When looking at the list of the top 10 New Years resolutions of last year provided by the Statistic Brain Institute, many familiar faces appear: #1 Lose Weight, #3 Spend Less, Save More, and #7 Quit Smoking. These prove to be no surprise as resolutions are often concerned with self-improvement in one form or another.

What’s more interesting are the other resolutions that have nothing to do with the self or have no particular end goal: #4 Enjoy Life to the Fullest, #6 Learn Something Exciting, #8 Help Others in Their Dreams, and #10 Spend More Time with Family. Although these goals are not easily quantifiable, they do paint a radically different picture of America’s hopes and dreams for the new year. There are less people dragging themselves to the gym and more people concerned with the people around them and the life in front of them than we realize. As a matter of fact, relationship related resolutions comprise 31 percent of the total number of resolutions made. A significant number that clearly demonstrates that our resolutions are made not just for ourselves.

So even though America’s yearly success rate may be only 8 percent and many of our resolutions dissolve before the year is done, it doesn’t make the experience any less valuable or worthwhile for you or the people you’ve helped along the way. Continue to make those resolutions and continue to challenge yourself for hope that you will reap the rewards both personally and relationally.

If there is any silver lining to the COVID pandemic, it might be the accelerated adoption of telehealth. Once considered a far-off possibility, telehealth became a right-now reality seemingly overnight, and consumer expectations adapted with the same speed. Today patients enjoy the convenience and efficiency of telehealth and expect their doctor to be as close as their smartphone.

The good news is patients aren’t the only ones experiencing benefits. Physicians are also gaining convenience and efficiency—and even growing their practices—using these new technologies. Here are five key benefits of telehealth for physicians and their clinics, as well as some cutting-edge advancements that will take them to the next level.

Benefit #1: Increased Capacity and Revenue

The first benefit is clinical growth. A physician’s patient capacity has long been limited by physical office constraints and geographic location, but telehealth makes it easy to supplement in-person visits with virtual ones. Virtual visits expand a physician’s reach and make it easier for patients within the clinic’s region, as evidenced by fewer late patients and lower no-show rates. Telehealth visits are also more efficient and more readily available than in-person visits, which keep patients from seeking care elsewhere. Put it all together and physicians have a winning strategy for increased visit volume and revenue.

Next-Level Telehealth: Physicians can partner with a platform that collects payments and bills insurance companies for them.

Patient Benefits: Increased physician capacity means quicker care, less waiting time, and a more consistent provider relationship for patients. Virtual appointment availability also minimizes patient expenses from travel, childcare, and missing work.

Benefit #2: Assessment and Triage

The second telehealth benefit is more efficient patient assessment, which leads to faster and more accurate triage. For instance, pre-appointment questionnaires empower doctors to provide pointed care, and glimpses into a patient’s home via video call provide a deeper understanding of their condition. Additionally, family members are often available for telehealth calls and can offer support and help answer questions. If a video or phone call is insufficient for their condition, telehealth can also reroute patients to the most appropriate care environment before the virtual appointment wastes valuable time and money.

Next-Level Telehealth: Physicians can leverage AI to further streamline patient assessment and evaluate medical symptoms.

Patient Benefits: Pre-appointment assessments result in more personalized services and lower costs. Telehealth visits also improve access to care and reduce unnecessary visits to the emergency room. 

Benefit #3: Patient Journey Facilitation

Telehealth’s third benefit is the facilitation of the patient journey. Patients often fall through the cracks when they are left to arrange follow-up care on their own. Studies have shown easy access is key to patient adherence, so telehealth connects patients to labs and specialists before they leave the physician’s office. The same goes for patients who need monitoring. Telehealth keeps patients and physicians engaged in the care journey by creating personalized, case-specific touchpoints and providing a channel for continuing education.

Next-Level Telehealth: Physicians can experiment with providing access to at-home monitoring tools or digital symptom calendars for patients with episodic or chronic conditions.

Patient Benefits: A better patient journey means a higher quality of care, better treatment outcomes, and a higher quality of life.

Benefit #4: Shared Communication Channel

A shared communication channel is the fourth benefit of telehealth. Whether by patient or physician error, important information often gets lost between providers. Telehealth seeks to provide a single source of truth where all providers involved in a patient’s journey can share their notes, test results, and treatment plans. Consulting physicians can even pop in virtually to give second opinions, saving patients an additional call or appointment. This kind of optimized communication leads to faster and more accurate diagnoses.

Next-Level Telehealth: Physicians can take advantage of EHR optimizations, like AI or virtual assistants, to increase the efficiency, accuracy, and speed of clinical communication.

Patient Benefits: A shared communication channel removes the burden of reporting from the patient and contributes to fewer repeat tests, lower costs, and a faster pace of treatment.

Benefit #5: Increased Physician Wellbeing

The fifth benefit is increased physician wellbeing. The COVID pandemic didn’t just advance our adoption of healthcare technology. It also brought issues of physician wellbeing into the public eye. Telehealth solved the immediate need for protecting physicians by providing a physical barrier that allowed care to continue. Moving forward, telehealth can do even more for physicians, like enabling them to take guilt-free vacations and improving work-life balance through workload planning. And studies show telehealth is already working in this direction. A recent survey found 55% of physicians agreed or strongly agreed that telehealth had improved their work satisfaction.

Next-Level Telehealth: Physicians can treat their burnout by working from home part-time or rearranging their schedules to see patients outside of office hours.

Patient Benefits: Increased physician flexibility can better meet patients’ scheduling needs. In addition, a healthy, happy physician provides higher quality care for a longer tenure, benefiting every patient they see and the communities where they work.

Recent years have changed healthcare, but evidence shows the changes are good. Telehealth is often touted as an upgrade for patients, but it has multiple benefits for physicians as well. Telehealth can grow practices, aid in efficiency and communication goals, create a better patient experience, and increase healthcare providers’ wellbeing. After everything we’ve been through, that’s a lot of good news.

P.S. We’ve developed a telehealth solution for ultrasound, called TeleScan, that checks a lot of these boxes.

The BB Imaging team takes continuous learning seriously. In fact, fostering a nurturing and learning-centric environment is one of our core values. We know a lot of you feel the same, so in the spirit of community, we’ve pulled together a list of our favorite learning resources. You’ll find links to educational articles, courses, events, CME credits, and more in this article. We recommend sharing this with your peers and bookmarking it for future reference!

AIUM

The American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM) is perhaps best known for their accreditation function, but they offer so much more to the sonography community! Log in to track your CMEs, check out live or on-demand webinars, articles (pass a post-test to earn CMEs!), and events. You can also check out their YouTube channel for free videos and webinars. We love “Improve Your Fetal Cardiac Imaging Optimizing in Grayscale and Color Doppler,” which can be found here!

ARDMS

If the next step along your learning path is another certification, go straight to the source! The American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography (ARDMS) offers checklists, study guides, and additional resources for each exam. You can also register to take a practice test.

If you’re seeking more CMEs, ARDMS provides a big list of CME providers, with both free and paid options.

For students who want to learn more about sonography, ARDMS provides a great section about the profession, including career outlook, choosing a diagnostic medical sonography program, and finding a job after graduation. Pass this one along to anyone who has serious questions about a career in sonography!

SDMS

Along with a CME tracker, SDMS provides thorough information on CMEs and a lot of opportunities to earn them. You can also check out their lineup of virtual events and the annual conference. We attend every year and would love to see you there! These events aren’t free, but they’re a great chance to learn and network with other sonographers.

BB Imaging Webinars

Did you know we offer free webinars? We also switched to a new, on-demand format, which means you can watch them at any time. We release new topics every month, and every webinar is taught by an experienced sonographer who provides in-depth content with lots of real-world examples.

You can also take the post-quiz for CME credits. The number of credits varies by webinar, but they’re always free! And if you want us to cover a specific topic, just let us know. We love to hear your suggestions.

Take CE

If you’re looking for an easier way to gain more CMEs at once, try takece.com. Their try-and-buy program allows you to download the ebook and test questions before purchasing the test. Take all the prep time you need, then purchase and take the exam when you’re ready. You can also check out the free demo course to see how it all works.

Cardiac / Echo

If you’re looking for something specific to cardiac and echo, we’ve got you covered! The American Society of Echocardiography serves up all things cardiovascular ultrasound, including a searchable learning hub and courses as well as live and virtual events.

We also love to check out Cardioserv’s CME page and blog. The CMEs are not free, but they do offer a free demo course so that you can preview their learning platform to determine whether it’s the right fit for you.

Maternal Fetal Medicine

This is where BB Imaging started, so MFM learning resources are our jam. We’ll give you our top two favorites. First, Perinatology.com. We use this resource a lot in-clinic, and our doctors find it really helpful too. Fair warning—it isn’t pretty, but it is packed with great information!

Second is The Fetal Medicine Foundation. This is the organization that we get our Nuchal Translucency certification through, but it also has great resources like educational courses, calculators, and published research articles.

Social Media

We know social media can be a black hole, but there are some great sonography-based accounts that will add value to your feed! On Facebook, we recommend following Sonographers Do It In the Dark. It’s “for all current and future sonographers to learn, share, and vent about all things sonography.”

On Instagram, we love following SonoEyes Ultrasound. She offers both educational and humorous posts just for sonographers and ultrasound techs.

BB Imaging Sonographer Development

Last (but certainly not least), if you’re looking to advance your career, we want to tell you about our in-house training. When you join our team, you get a tailored training program that ensures you have mastered all the necessary skills before you scan solo in-clinic. This also gives you time to get to know your teammates, our doctors, and their preferences.

In addition to your initial training, we are dedicated to helping you grow beyond baseline skills into areas that interest you. Our sonographer development team builds, collects, and curates resources for further learning and certification. We’ve got a library full of videos, slide presentations, cheat sheets, webpages, and of course, our own webinars!

So, excuse the shameless plug, but if learning and development are important to you, we want to help you reach your goals.

We hope you discovered something new in this list, and we’d love to know what you would add. Tell us about your favorite resources in the comments below.

This year’s annual conference, hosted by the Society of Diagnostic Medical Sonography (SDMS), was a special one for BB Imaging. We confirmed our suspicion that everyone loves a comfy pair of slippers. We brought a dog to the conference for the first time in SDMS history. AND this conference marked our first big unveiling of TeleScan™ and what the future of sonography is going to look like.

It was a great weekend, and we gained a lot of insights from attendees. We’d like to share our three biggest takeaways with you:

1. Telesonography® is a Hot Topic

The house slipper giveaways drew lots of people to our booth, but the conversations about telesonography® and work-from-home opportunities are what kept them there. We were impressed all over again by how passionate sonographers are about what they do and how much they care about the patients they serve. Our new model of care was met (understandably) with mixed reactions. Since not all of us could attend in person, let’s talk about those reactions and our responses:

• Excitement

Some sonographers we talked to responded with immediate excitement and enthusiasm. We noticed that many of these sonographers were younger or newer to the field, and they were the most likely to want to hear more about what being a telesonographer® will be like.

Katherine Yancey, a recruiter at BB Imaging, said, “Telescan™ is innovative and groundbreaking for this industry, and people are interested in learning more. Over the weekend we received 400+ applications for more information regarding the telesonographer® position that will be launching in 2023.”

• Curiosity and Skepticism

Many sonographers just need more information to see all the potential upsides to telesonography®. The greatest concerns we heard were about image quality and its impact on patient care.

We share those concerns, and that’s why our model of care still employs credentialed sonographers to complete diagnostics. This is how it works in a nutshell: local healthcare workers will complete sweeps with the guidance of TeleScan™ software. That data will go to a cloud platform (it’s HIPPA-compliant, super secure, and FDA-cleared), where expert sonographers will capture and annotate the best images and create reports for the physician.

Bedside sonographers might be ideal, but there are so many places in our country where ideal standards are not being met. We have to figure out a way to bring quality care to the underserved, and the partnering of expert sonographers with local practitioners is our answer. Telesonographers® will still need to bring their unique skillset and knowledge base to work every day.

We think Shyanne Foster, a BB Imaging charge sonographer, said it best: “Our biggest win was being able to educate and clearly explain our mission to sonographers who were skeptical and had many great questions about Telescan™. I believe we can all get on board with wanting to decrease the maternal and fetal mortality rate in America.”

• Dread and Anger

Let’s start by saying that dread is a valid response to something new, and anger is a valid response when we care deeply about what is being changed. We send a sincere “thank you” to everyone questioning our motives, our dedication to quality care, and our compassion for the underserved. Give us a chance to respond to some of the greatest concerns we heard.

“Guiding medical professionals who are not trained in sonography sounds suspicious.” If this is your fear, we hope you’ll take the time to become more acquainted with our model of care, which is designed to make the best use of sonographer expertise and to keep it in the field for a longer amount of time. New technology will always raise eyebrows, but what we find even more “sus” is allowing patients to remain underserved, turning a blind eye to sonographer injuries, and maintaining a system that is not currently designed to care for everyone.

“This sounds like another big corporation just trying to make money.” Goodness, we’ve seen a lot of companies like that, haven’t we? It’s sad how often this occurs—taking advantage of an underserved population to make a quick buck. We want to assure you, though, that we are not that company. One of our cofounders is a sonographer, and the other started her career with a non-profit domestic violence agency. We are built differently, and we are dedicated to solving the maternal mortality crisis. We’ve been around for more than 17 years, and telesonography® is just the next piece we’re building to make positive maternal outcomes a reality for everyone.

“It sounds like you don’t care about best practices.” We can see how easy it would be to think this when you don’t have a full understanding of our model. Beyond encouraging you to review the material we have available online, we want to assure you that we didn’t build TeleScan™ in a vacuum. We had 50 sonographers work with our system, test it, and help us achieve FDA clearance. That means our product doesn’t meet minimum standards—it meets the standards of in-the-field sonographers. Because of their feedback, we are confident that we have a product that empowers sonographers to do their best work.

Overall, this weekend showed us that sonographers are ready and willing to continue this conversation. That has us thinking about more ways to gather that feedback and get sonographers even more engaged with what we’re building. Stay tuned for more opportunities to make your voice heard.

We know we didn’t have the chance to talk with everyone, so if you still have questions about telesonography®, start by checking out the TeleScan website. If you are interested in learning more about a telesonographer® role with BB Imaging, we’d love to receive your application and continue the conversation.

2. We Made More Than 700 New Friends!

More than 700 new folks joined our community over the weekend. Whether we got to talk to you in our booths or shook virtual hands over social media, we say, “Thank You!” and “Welcome!”

If you’re new around here, here’s a quick run-down of what you can expect:

• Our newsletter, The Wave, hits your inbox once every month. We share in-depth blogs to help you grow your knowledge base and spotlights to help grow your network. It’s also the best way to stay up-to-date on job opportunities and catch the newest webinars.

• Speaking of which… we publish FREE, CME-earning webinars several times throughout the year. Our webinars are by sonographers, for sonographers, so get ready for deep discussions and lots of real-world images and examples. We’ve recently switched to an on-demand viewing model, so current topics are available for a year after publication. Be sure to check them out before their time expires!

• We are very active on social media, where we share knowledge material, post event information, and host contests and giveaways. Connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, and be sure to say hello!

• We are always expanding, so keep an eye on our job opportunities. And if you know a physician or clinic who could use a little support, you can refer them here. We’d love to partner with more providers in your region.

3. Dogs Will Always Be a Big Hit

We saw so many people from across the event—other exhibitors and SDMS staff included! They just had to come see the dog, and we get it! In fact, having a dog at the event was such a success that it inspired us to create a mascot for our brand. What do you think about naming her Tellie…?

Whoever thought being a Rookie was a good thing? Well Liz Wiseman, author of Rookie Smarts did. She turned what was once thought as a disadvantage, and revealed the hidden advantages of being a newcomer of any age and in any field. We thought this idea is too good not too share and is particularly applicable to healthcare, where the learning never stops.

The principal of Rookie Smarts is this—there is an unseen advantage, a hidden skill set, in “rookies.” Traditionally seen an inexperienced and a burden on managers, Rookies often have to work extra hard to prove themselves and to get their bearings in a new work environment. However, these exact qualities give Rookies their competitive advantage. Because they inherit a knowledge gap when they enter a new field, they can’t rely on their previous experiences to guide their steps. They therefore, have to learn at an incredible rate.

By harvesting information from industry experts and other resources, rookies compile a mass of information, parsing through and consolidating them into a perfectly adjusted skill set for the project at hand. Additionally, this knowledge gap results in a larger initial investment for each new project, causing rookies to work with a sense of urgency to close the gap. This reactionary behavior to being behind, conversely propels Rookies ahead of their veteran co-workers. As discovered by Wiseman, coupling a desire to learn with an increased work ethic produces a worker that regularly outpaces an employee with years of experience. Additionally, being a rookie opens you up to other people’s perspective, granting the rookie a unique ability to listen to other people’s ideas and applying them in a synergistic way to solve problems and create value.

At first, this idea of Rookie Smarts may seem to cast doubt on the skill sets of experienced workers and give praise the vitality of youth. This is not the case. Wiseman makes clear that these ideas categorize behavior and not people. By making a conscious effort to suppress that “know-it-all” tendency that comes with years of experience, we operate with a willingness to learn, allowing us to better develop our own skill sets. A CEO of 20 years can tap into their rookie smarts by adjusting their perspective towards their staff and processes. This often results in better, more well-balanced solutions and engages team members on a level previously unseen.

This way of thinking can be toggled on and off depending on the situation as well. Mastery of Rookie Smarts means you know when to apply it. Protocols and tried-and-true methodology have an important place in a company structure and can allow for efficient work flow while minimizing risks. Rookie Smarts is about tapping into a skill set that is more suitable for the problem at hand.

For healthcare workers this is critical. In a field where research is constantly being conducted and new information on patient care is continually being disseminated, operating with a willingness to learn is in direct relation to the longevity and vitality of one’s career. Additionally, this allows for better working relationships with co-workers and ultimately delivering the best care possible for the patient.

If you find this idea compelling and want to learn more about the hidden talents of Rookies, be sure to check out Liz Wiseman’s book, Rookie Smarts.