Continuing Medical Education for Sonographers: A Brief History and an Update

The requirement for continuing medical education in health care originated in the early 1900s when several investigators in the United States determined that the training physicians were receiving was woefully inadequate. The Flexner Report, which was based on an extensive analysis of how the early medical schools were educating physicians, proposed several radical changes in physician instruction, including a recommendation for postgraduate training. Now known as continuing medical education (CME), this obligation is practically universal in the medical and allied health fields including sonography. Although there are many options for the diagnostic medical sonographer to earn CME credits, the Society of Diagnostic Medical Sonography (SDMS) instituted a unique program for sonographers to earn credits by providing clinical instruction to sonography students. By using electronic data collection and management systems, it is now easy for sonography program directors to submit their clinical instructors for CME credits through the SDMS.