- Email: [email protected]
Sonographers’ communication
SONOGRAPHERS’ COMMUNICATION In the Company of Friends
Rick Rigling, BS, RDCS, FASE Chair of the Council on Cardiac Sonography The phone rings, and I smile as the caller ID lets me know it is the familiar number of a close friend who just happens to be one of my equipment manufacturing representatives. The conversation moves between sincere concern over issues with our families and exchanging professional ideas. These conversations occur often in our professional lives, as our industry is small enough to allow us to develop numerous close friendships. It might be the Ultrasound Equipment Clinical Applications Specialist we have worked with for over 20 years and are growing old with, or the Contrast Specialist with whom we enjoy sharing a conversation about our kids as much as we enjoy challenging each other with new use strategies. The Cardiovascular Ultrasound Industry is full of great people willing to share more than just a profit margin. The way in which we work with the manufacturing companies that are involved with Cardiovascular Ultrasound is one of our mutual interests. As patient care professionals, we want to be able to develop and use new techniques and strategies to improve the overall cardiovascular health of our patients. The companies that are developing the products we use have the same goal in mind. They push us with new devices and tools to find ways to use these possible tools. We try to understand how to implement the use and push the companies with ideas and research on how they can develop bigger and better devices. It’s a cycle of ideas and implementations that ultimately provides the outcome of finding better ways to reach the goal of improving cardiovascular health. The work ASE members do with industry partners has radically changed echocardiography from a simple m-mode representation of basic cardiac structure and function to one of complex diagnosis and management of cardiovascular diseases. Financial support given to the ASE and indirectly to all of us as CV Ultrasound users is substantial and often hidden. Members of the ASE Industry Roundtable make substantial
contributions to our success as a professional organization. http://www.asecho.org/Media_Public_Info/Roundtable/ body_roundtable.php The contribution is not just a simple check, but a complex support system involved in many aspects of the organization. They provide support to most, if not all of our numerous educational programs. Many of our strategies for supporting members’ educational and advocacy goals are supported by these industry partners. For example, the ASE Contrast Zone, http://www.contrastzone. com, is an ASE based website that helps members understand how to utilize ultrasound contrast. It was developed by a joint taskforce of ASE volunteer members and representatives of ultrasound contrast manufacturers. The development of joint projects and support for all those involved in our industry will benefit us all. The relationships within our industry also extend beyond the equipment manufacturers. We work with sonography schools, credentialing agencies, and now accrediting bodies. The ASE works with all of these agencies and even provides sonographer representatives to many of them. These joint efforts are aimed at raising the bar and developing a stronger industry based on quality first. On a personal level, many of us find that our relationships with these organizations lead not only to the realization of our mutual goal of a better industry, but often to career advancement opportunities as well. Our professional relationships impact many personal lives just as strongly as our professional ones. During the recent hurricane disaster in the Gulf Coast, we saw the true hearts of those who work on all sides of our industry. We all tried to give financial support to those who were affected but there were many examples of companies and individuals who belong to ASE and work with ASE who took an extra step to help our patients and professional colleagues. Texas members of ASE quickly stepped up to provide round-the-clock makeshift clinics to help take care of the huge number of individuals evacuated. Other ASE members, including Sid Edelman of ESP and Elsevier, the publisher of JASE, donated numerous cardiology textbooks and new reference materials to the CVT program at Louisiana State University in New Orleans. It is easy to see that when a colleague is in need, there is usually someone within our common profession that will be willing to help. Keep an open mind and next time someone walks down the hall toward your lab in a business suit, don’t look at it as a painful experience in which you are going to have to listen to this person even though you feel overwhelmed with work. Instead consider the exchange between yourself and that industry representative as one of working towards the realization of mutual goals. Given the chance, the support and relationships we gain from our manufacturing company representatives can lead to bigger and better things. Who knows—it could lead to a better deal, or at least possibly a smooth deal? It might even lead to a new career opportunity, but for certain it can lead to a lasting friendship with another person with whom you have many professional and personal things in common.
28A Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography
Volume 18 Number 11
Rick Rigling, BS, RDCS, FASE Chair of the Council on Cardiac Sonography The phone rings, and I smile as the caller ID lets me know it is the familiar number of a close friend who just happens to be one of my equipment manufacturing representatives. The conversation moves between sincere concern over issues with our families and exchanging professional ideas. These conversations occur often in our professional lives, as our industry is small enough to allow us to develop numerous close friendships. It might be the Ultrasound Equipment Clinical Applications Specialist we have worked with for over 20 years and are growing old with, or the Contrast Specialist with whom we enjoy sharing a conversation about our kids as much as we enjoy challenging each other with new use strategies. The Cardiovascular Ultrasound Industry is full of great people willing to share more than just a profit margin. The way in which we work with the manufacturing companies that are involved with Cardiovascular Ultrasound is one of our mutual interests. As patient care professionals, we want to be able to develop and use new techniques and strategies to improve the overall cardiovascular health of our patients. The companies that are developing the products we use have the same goal in mind. They push us with new devices and tools to find ways to use these possible tools. We try to understand how to implement the use and push the companies with ideas and research on how they can develop bigger and better devices. It’s a cycle of ideas and implementations that ultimately provides the outcome of finding better ways to reach the goal of improving cardiovascular health. The work ASE members do with industry partners has radically changed echocardiography from a simple m-mode representation of basic cardiac structure and function to one of complex diagnosis and management of cardiovascular diseases. Financial support given to the ASE and indirectly to all of us as CV Ultrasound users is substantial and often hidden. Members of the ASE Industry Roundtable make substantial
contributions to our success as a professional organization. http://www.asecho.org/Media_Public_Info/Roundtable/ body_roundtable.php The contribution is not just a simple check, but a complex support system involved in many aspects of the organization. They provide support to most, if not all of our numerous educational programs. Many of our strategies for supporting members’ educational and advocacy goals are supported by these industry partners. For example, the ASE Contrast Zone, http://www.contrastzone. com, is an ASE based website that helps members understand how to utilize ultrasound contrast. It was developed by a joint taskforce of ASE volunteer members and representatives of ultrasound contrast manufacturers. The development of joint projects and support for all those involved in our industry will benefit us all. The relationships within our industry also extend beyond the equipment manufacturers. We work with sonography schools, credentialing agencies, and now accrediting bodies. The ASE works with all of these agencies and even provides sonographer representatives to many of them. These joint efforts are aimed at raising the bar and developing a stronger industry based on quality first. On a personal level, many of us find that our relationships with these organizations lead not only to the realization of our mutual goal of a better industry, but often to career advancement opportunities as well. Our professional relationships impact many personal lives just as strongly as our professional ones. During the recent hurricane disaster in the Gulf Coast, we saw the true hearts of those who work on all sides of our industry. We all tried to give financial support to those who were affected but there were many examples of companies and individuals who belong to ASE and work with ASE who took an extra step to help our patients and professional colleagues. Texas members of ASE quickly stepped up to provide round-the-clock makeshift clinics to help take care of the huge number of individuals evacuated. Other ASE members, including Sid Edelman of ESP and Elsevier, the publisher of JASE, donated numerous cardiology textbooks and new reference materials to the CVT program at Louisiana State University in New Orleans. It is easy to see that when a colleague is in need, there is usually someone within our common profession that will be willing to help. Keep an open mind and next time someone walks down the hall toward your lab in a business suit, don’t look at it as a painful experience in which you are going to have to listen to this person even though you feel overwhelmed with work. Instead consider the exchange between yourself and that industry representative as one of working towards the realization of mutual goals. Given the chance, the support and relationships we gain from our manufacturing company representatives can lead to bigger and better things. Who knows—it could lead to a better deal, or at least possibly a smooth deal? It might even lead to a new career opportunity, but for certain it can lead to a lasting friendship with another person with whom you have many professional and personal things in common.
28A Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography
Volume 18 Number 11