Sonographers’ Communication

SONOGRAPHERS’ COMMUNICATION Brewing Up Something Special 4. Develop a session in which attendees can see what the ASE provides sonographers and have attendees provide feedback to see what we can do better

Rick Rigling, BS, RDCS, FASE Chair of the Council on Cardiac Sonography

Several years ago I was asked to head out from the East Coast to Seattle to attend the ASE Annual Scientific Sessions. I was thinking that Seattle means rainy, dreary, a long meeting, and not much fun. Not having been to Seattle, I was blinded by my ignorance. The meeting turned out to be one of the best meetings I had attended. Seattle and the surrounding countryside was a great place to visit and attend a meeting. During the week of the meeting, the sun was shining and it only rained briefly one afternoon. I, like many others, am very excited to be heading back to Seattle for this year’s Scientific Sessions. Not only will we have the pleasure of going back to a great city, but this year’s program looks to be the best ever. Patrick Coon along with help from Peg Knoll, have put in a tremendous amount of work on this program and have come up with some great ideas to make the experience for sonographers a memorable one. Our thanks all go out to Patrick for his hard work in the exciting program he describes in the following paragraphs. The American Society of Echocardiography Scientific Sessions has always been a meeting designed with the needs of the sonographer in mind. Over the years, it has been “tweaked” in response to feedback from previous years’ attendees. This year, Peg Knoll and I have tried to come up with an even better approach to provide optimum education for the sonographer. This being said, we set out with a few goals: 1. Listen to previous attendees and change what doesn’t work while strengthening what works well 2. Provide an interactive format in which attendees feel comfortable communicating with the faculty and peers 3. Choose topics that are both “bread and butter” and cutting edge

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We hope you join us this year in Seattle for the ASE Scientific Sessions where the theme for the sonographer sessions is “hands-on and hand-outs”. This year, we have made an effort to use a more interactive approach in order to demonstrate the skills necessary to become a world-class sonographer and expand your skills in an ever-demanding marketplace. The program includes many hands on demonstrative sessions to highlight the sonographer-physician team approach to some of our most vexing clinical issues: adults with congenital heart disease, live contrast echocardiography, real-time 3D echo, and live vascular imaging. Not only are these hot button issues in today’s clinical practice, but the hands approach will allow for a more informal interaction between attendees and faculty. In addition, we have expanded the ever-popular workbook to include previous year’s topics such as aortic valve disease and mitral valve disease, but we have also included other topics such as diastology for the sonographer and cardiac resynchronization therapy for the refractory heart failure patient. If these opportunities are not enough, we will also be showcasing a novel concept where sonographers can work one-on-one and in small groups with experienced sonography faculty to scan live patients and get tips from the experts. We call it “Scan with the Experts”. (I know. . . I know. . . very original!) This year’s sessions will also highlight the most recent recipients of the ASE sonographer research grants, Sandy Witt (Utility of Ultrasound Biomicroscopy in Aortic Valve Development and Disease Progression) and Allen Borowski (Tissue Doppler Assessment of Right Ventricular Performance in Acute Heart Failure [TARVA] Study). Please come out and hear them present the hard work they have been doing on behalf of the ASE. This years’s Distinguished Sonographer Teacher Award will be officially presented to one of the greatest teachers in all fields of allied health, a friend and mentor to many, Dennis Carney. Please come by and congratulate Dennis in winning this well deserved award. During this session, you can also hear what the incoming chairperson (Peg Knoll) has as her vision of the next two years of the ASE. We will also hear from Rick Rigling about where we have come over the past two years. This is a great time to thank Rick for two of the longest two years of his life! Thanks, Rick! You can also get an update from Capitol Hill and see what the CARE bill means for the future of cardiac sonography as a profession. This is a great opportunity to “add your 2 cents” and hear what the ASE is doing on your behalf. We have also expanded the intravenous (IV) certification course to include more faculty, better teaching materials and more opportunities for you to learn how

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to (finally) put in IV’s. There is also a noon time session for sonographer educators that includes topics such as ergonomics, how to find a clinical site, advanced practice sonography, minimum standards for clinical sonography, and a physics primer. Dr. Lang has also worked hard this year to introduce a novel concept in teaching cutting edge tools for clinical diagnosis. There will be an opportunity to work on computers and learn how to “slice and dice” 3D data sets, assess left ventricular dyssynchrony, and assess valvular heart disease.

The Scientific Sessions have always been a work in progress and this year is no exception. Hopefully, we are getting a little closer to the “perfect” teaching vessel and we have been able to reach all the goals we have set out to accomplish. We hope to see you in Seattle this year so you can continue to tell us how we can best serve your needs from many aspects that range from the political to educational. -Patrick Coon, RDCS, RCVT

30A Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography

Volume 20 Number 5