ultrasound Archives - Sound Waves Image

Articles Tagged with: ultrasound

Ultrasound Staffing Solutions For The Holidays

The holidays are right around the corner and while “tis the season to be jolly” it is also the busiest season of the year! Your appointments are off the charts, your staff members are planning their holiday vacations and you’re stuck wondering how you’re going to get through it all.

However, no need to sound the alarms just yet. At Soundwaves we have you covered with professional staffing solutions provided by experts in the ultrasound industry. The Soundwaves sonography team is made up of ARDMS certified sonographers who have been hand-chosen and trained by founder Denise Barbato, who has had over 25 years of sonography experience!

We make sure that every single team member is knowledgeable, accurate and well-versed in all aspects of ultrasound technology; including the latest equipment and gear. If you ever find yourself overbooked or in a pinch, Soundwaves can also offer top of the line equipment rentals and consultations for your office.

We know how important it is for your team to provide a knowledgeable and professional sonographer to every single patient that walks into your facility, that’s why our slogan is ‘Image is Everything’, because we understand your practice is your reputation. Book a soundwaves sonographer today and find out why we are the preferred ultrasound service for doctors.

Visit our website or call us for more information www.soundwavesimage.com

Convenient and HIPAA Compliant Method for Storing Ultrasound Images and Reports

For those of you who are still printing paper images and paper reports, Studycast is a quick and easy solution that will improve your management of patient data. At Soundwaves, we use

Studycast, a cloud based server that makes it easy to store, view and transfer images and reports. You can still print paper copies if needed, however you can rest assured that your

images and reports are additionally securely stored in a HIPAA compliant web based server that can be accessed with a login and password from any computer, tablet or smart phone.

Some of the many benefits to the sonographers, office managers and doctors who use this service are:

Previous study images can be easily accessed to compare structures such as the changes in an ovarian mass or fibroids.
If a paper report is ever misplaced, it can be easily re-printed from the database.
The images can be sent securely across town or across the country in seconds for a reading or second opinion from a colleague.

Reports can be automatically sent to a fax or your EMR
Images and reports can be securely emailed to a patient

Contact us at Soundwaves if you would like more information on how we can help you improve management of patient data in your office.

Avoid Adnexal Mass Confusion

Adnexal masses found in the female pelvis are perhaps one of the trickiest abnormalities to diagnose. These masses are typically found in the ovaries and have a wide range of causes and characteristics. Because of this, it is extremely important to pay close attention to their slight differences in order to begin proper treatment. In the end, only a skilled sonographer with years of experience will be able to tell the difference and properly describe different types of adnexal masses so that the doctor can properly manage the patient.

One of the most important factors when determining what type of adnexal mass a patient has developed, is studying and becoming familiar with recurring patterns. In women younger than 20 years of age, the most common adnexal masses are malignant ovarian neoplasms, malignant germ cell tumors and granulosa cell tumors. By age 40, the most common are malignant ovarian neoplasm of epithelial origin. It has been noted that the most predictive elements for assessing the risk of malignancy in an ovarian mass are age, presence of solid elements and the presence of central arterial flow in these solid elements.

Other important factors to consider when evaluating ovarian lesions are the appearance of wall structure (thickness, internal and/or external papillae), internal echo structure (sonolucent, echogenic, low level echoes or mixed echogenicity), shadowing, blood vessels and many more. All of these are crucial skill sets you want to make sure your sonographer possesses in order to offer your patients high-quality care.

Because there are so many different types of adnexal masses that can appear in the ovaries or female pelvis, they can easily be misinterpreted by an inexperienced sonographer. Therefore, at Soundwaves, we would like to offer you, not only our highly trained sonographers, but also, our rich foundation of knowledge acquired through years of working in the industry. At Soundwaves, we make sure our staff attends ultrasound conferences and discussion panels all year round, in order stay up to date with the latest in sonographic findings. We pride ourselves in setting a standard in our industry and you should too. Find out more about Soundwaves by visiting SoundwavesImage.com.

Ultrasound Tips: Timing is Everything

In order to achieve the most accurate results, there are a few ultrasound studies that are best scheduled within a certain time frame. Namely, these studies are: sonohysterograms, studies performed for evaluation of the endometrium, nuchal translucency, and anatomy studies.

The best time to evaluate the endometrium for possible polyp, fibroid invasion, irregularity of the endometrium, or to get an accurate measurement when determining endometrial thickness, is between days 7 and 10 of the menstrual cycle. This is also very important when performing a sonohysterogram to avoid a false positive result. If your patient is spotting between periods or having abnormal bleeding, accurate evaluation of the endometrium and the timing of the evaluation are very important.

The guidelines given by the NTQR state that nuchal translucency (NT) ultrasound is to be performed between 11 weeks and 13 weeks 6 days. The objective is to balance early detection of a problem with the ability to see the baby well enough. Performing an NT ultrasound between 12 ½ and 13 ½ weeks will help allow for accurate evaluation. Sometimes, when performed earlier, it is difficult to clearly evaluate the NT due to the size of the baby.

With anatomy scans, we face the same issue. We want to detect abnormalities as early as possible, however, we also want to be able to see small structures well enough to clearly evaluate them. When we are looking at small structures such as the chambers of the heart, it is important that that we have the clearest view possible. Performing anatomy scans close to the 19-20th week rather than week 16 may help one evaluate these smaller structures.

I have been in the field of ultrasound for 25 years and I am able to advise your office on many ultrasound related subjects. Feel free to contact me for advice on how to make sure your ultrasound practice is of the highest accuracy and quality.

Sincerely,

Denise Barbato RDMS