Thanks to media attention for the American Heart Association's "Go Red" campaign to raise awareness of heart disease in women, you may already know that heart disease is the top killer of American women each year.
What you may not know are the factors fueling the demand for cardiac sonographers, the specially trained health professionals who use ultrasound technology to help detect and monitor heart disease.
According to Ken Horton, the Chair of the Council on Cardiovascular Sonography of the American Society of Echocardiography, the cost, safety, efficiency, and portability of cardiac ultrasound in comparison to other imaging modalities are all factors fueling the demand for ultrasound testing, and therefore the demand for sonographers.
"Ultrasound is a relatively inexpensive imaging modality that does not utilize ionizing radiation so is safer for our patients," said Horton.