Category: Sonography Careers

Quick answer Echocardiography is the ultrasound imaging of the heart. A cardiac sonographer — sometimes called an echocardiographer or echo tech — uses a transducer to capture moving pictures of the heart’s chambers, valves, and the blood flowing through them. It’s one of the main sonography specialties, with its own credentials and its own daily…

Quick answer Sonography is a multi-specialty profession. The same job title — diagnostic medical sonographer — covers people who scan abdomens, hearts, blood vessels, pregnancies, joints, and more. Most sonographers train in one or two of these areas and earn a credential that matches. The specialty you pick shapes what you scan, who you work…

Quick answer > Quick answer: In most states, certification isn’t a legal requirement — but in practice it’s close to non-negotiable. Certification by a recognized credentialing body is treated as the standard of practice in sonography, and employers overwhelmingly expect it. Three nationally recognized bodies certify sonographers: ARDMS, ARRT, and CCI. So while a law…

Quick answer > Quick answer: RVT stands for Registered Vascular Technologist. It’s the vascular sonography credential issued by ARDMS, earned by passing the SPI exam plus the Vascular Technology (VT) exam. It tells employers a sonographer is registered to image blood vessels — arteries and veins. A closely related but separate credential, the RVS, covers…

Quick answer > Quick answer: SPI stands for Sonography Principles & Instrumentation. It’s the physics-and-equipment exam that every ARDMS credential requires. You pass SPI plus a specialty exam to earn a credential like RDMS, RDCS, or RVT. Before you can even sit for SPI, you have to clear a physics prerequisite — either a physics…

Quick answer > Quick answer: A sonography credential isn’t permanent — it’s kept active through continuing education on a recurring cycle. ARDMS credentials use a three-year cycle of 25 CMEs, plus an annual attestation, a renewal fee, and an annual knowledge check. CCI’s registry-level credentials require 36 CEUs every three years. The exact numbers depend…

Quick answer > Quick answer: In most of the country, no. As of 2026, only four U.S. states require diagnostic medical sonographers to hold a state license: New Mexico, Oregon, North Dakota, and New Hampshire. Everywhere else, there is no state license to get. In those states, the credential that matters is national certification from…

Quick answer > Quick answer: For an ARDMS credential, it takes two exams: the Sonography Principles & Instrumentation (SPI) exam, plus one specialty exam in your area. Pass both and you’re registered in that specialty. If you want to be registered in more than one specialty — say cardiac and vascular — you add one…

Quick answer It depends on the path. There’s no single national rule that says you must work in healthcare first. Some programs ask for patient-care experience or job shadowing as an admission requirement, and some don’t — that part is set school by school. Where healthcare experience clearly matters is in certain credential-eligibility paths, where…

Quick answer Partly, but not fully. The classroom side of sonography — anatomy, physics, patient care theory — can be delivered online, and many programs do. But the scanning side can’t. Credentialing rules require hands-on clinical training on real patients, in person. ARRT, one of the certifying bodies, explicitly prohibits remote scanning toward clinical competency.…