SDMS Sound News

Volume 7, Issue 6          June 30, 2005                ISSN 1543-0448

 
  In This Issue...
  1. Last Chance to Vote in the SDMS 2005 Elections
  2. SDMS Hits New Membership High-Water Mark
  3. New Benefit, Exclusively for SDMS Members
  4. ARDMS Accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
  5. New Resource Management Tutorial at the 2005 SDMS Annual Conference
  6. OSHA/SDMS Alliance Creates 'Safety Island' for Annual Conference
  7. News & Notes
  8. Important Dates

This issue of SDMS Sound News is sponsored by GE Healthcare, a PLATINUM sponsor of SDMS.
GE Healthcare is the leading global pharmaceutical provider of diagnostic imaging products. GE Healthcare is dedicated to providing healthcare professionals with products that expand and improve their diagnostic capabilities and contribute to the treatment of disease. With a focus in cardiovascular imaging, GE Healthcare markets Optison (Perflutren Protein-Type A Microspheres for Injection, USP) for use in echocardiography.

SDMS Sound News is a way of sharing important or time-sensitive news with our members. It supplements our print newsletter, News Wave, and provides links to new information and services available on the SDMS web site. SDMS Sound News is published monthly. An archive of past issues is available at http://www.sdms.org/lists/soundnewsarchive.asp 		 
  SDMS Member: %%FirstName%% %%LastName%%
Membership Expires: %%ExpDate%%
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Virtual Voting Booth Closes at 5:00 pm (CDT) on June 30th, 2005
http://www.sdms.org/members/vote/

Exercise your membership PRIVILEGE by voting!

Not only is this the place to vote, but also you can learn more about the candidates, their position on professional issues, and communicate directly with them. Take this opportunity to inform yourself. Then, vote for the candidates who you believe will best represent your views on issues and the future of SDMS and the profession.

Cast your vote for the following positions:

  • President-Elect
  • Vice President
  • Secretary
  • Treasurer
  • Region 3 Director (AR, AZ, KS, LA, NM, OK, TX only)
  • Region 4 Director (IL, IN, IA, OH, MI, MN, MO, WI only)
  • three Finance Committee positions
Note: SDMS members in the following membership categories are eligible to vote in SDMS elections: Active (ACT), Associate (ASC), Fellow (FEL), Advanced Practice Sonographer® (APS®).

Please visit http://www.sdms.org/members/2005voteinfo.asp

Results of the 2005 SDMS Elections will be reported in the July issue of Sound News.

 
  2. SDMS Hits New Membership High-Water Mark

On June 28, 2005, SDMS membership passed the 17,000 mark for the first time in the Society's history. SDMS is the largest professional sonographer organization in the world and services and supports sonographers from all ultrasound specialties. 		 
  3. New Benefit, Exclusively for SDMS Members

There’s a new “twist” to the great sonographer professional liability insurance available only to SDMS members. Now there are three benefits in one package!
  1. Currently, SDMS Insurance Services offers an economic and comprehensive insurance plan to help insure that you are not “going to work naked”.
  2. Recently, through a joint effort with our insurance company, we added a continuing medical education course on the SDMS website, “Professional Risk Management for Sonographers”. This course offers you, in an easy to understand manner (minus the legal jargon), the do’s and don’ts regarding protecting yourself should a legal situation arise. You also have the opportunity to complete a CME post test and if passed, you receive one CME credit FREE.
  3. Upon your successful completion of this course, you are eligible for a 10% discount on your insurance premium!
This terrific new discount is available on your next renewal period. If your renewal is coming up, please keep this information in mind and contact SDMS Insurance Services so that they can verify your discount. If you don’t have professional liability insurance through SDMS Insurance Services, please give them a call. The plan is available in two coverage levels, and in these litigious times, is essential to your career. SDMS Insurance Services can be reached at 800-565-8794. Remember to have your SDMS member number available as this benefit is available only to SDMS members. More information about the SDMS professional liability insurance coverage is available at http://www.sdms.org/membership/liability.asp.

If you have any questions about your SDMS membership, please do not hesitate to contact the SDMS Membership Department at membershipdept@sdms.org. If you do not have your SDMS member number available, you may complete the “Reminder” form on the SDMS website at http://www.sdms.org/members/remindme.asp and your number will be emailed to you.

 
  4. ARDMS Accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI)

ARDMS is now officially accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) -International Standards Organization (ISO) for the ISO 17024 program.

This international accreditation is the highest compliment that can be made to a credentialing organization as the new ISO 17024 accreditation for personnel credentialing organizations sets extremely high standards for quality management systems, psychometrics, application processing, registrant data and discipline, finance/accounting, human resources, information technology, marketing and vendor relationships. Nearly 12 months of work of reviewing and changing systems, policies, and procedures were required.

ARDMS is the 6th organization in the world to achieve this accreditation and only the 2nd healthcare based credentialing group. ARDMS was also the first in relation to many ISO accreditations to have zero "non-compliances", essentially a perfect score, and to achieve ISO accreditation on the first application.

ARDMS is now officially recognized as an international standard and global organization.

As background, ISO is based in Geneva, Switzerland and consists of a Board that sits 100+ countries. ANSI is the U.S.A representative, incidentally, the U.S. has the only non-governmental ISO member.

 
  5. New Resource Management Tutorial at the 2005 SDMS Annual Conference

The SDMS Annual Conference will once again be the most valuable meeting that you will attend this year to enhance your professional skills. A new, one-half day tutorial has been added this year dealing with human resource management and practice management issues. They are entitled:

  • How to Manage People
  • Staff Motivation—Making Your Style Work For You
  • The Challenge of Doing More with Less—An Overview of the Ultrasound Lab
  • What’s New in Coding Ultrasound
Two sessions are designed to help you face personnel challenges by learning how to effectively manage and motivate your staff, while two other sessions will help you deal with practice management challenges of resources and reimbursement. Each session has been approved for 1 SDMS CME credit. In addition, for the first time, CME credit is being offered for physicians for the session entitled, “What’s New in Coding Ultrasound,” which has been approved for .75 credit toward the American Medical Association’s Physicians Recognition Award. SDMS is an accredited provider for continuing medical education for physicians by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education.

All of the presenters that have been selected for their educational session are tried and true managers with years of experience in managing staff and allocating resources. Their knowledge of adult learning principles, budgeting expertise, ICD-9-CM coding, and personal experience reflections will help you take a new look at your daily human resource and budgetary challenges and put them into perspective to help you be a more effective manager.

 
  6. OSHA/SDMS Alliance Creates 'Safety Island' for Annual Conference

In November of 2004 SDMS representatives traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet with leaders from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to sign an ‘Alliance’ agreement between the two organizations, the culmination of over a year’s work and negotiation. The OSHA/SDMS Alliance is an agreement between OSHA and SDMS to work collaboratively to reduce the impact of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMSD) on the sonographer population. In order to address the problem of WRMSD in sonography, the Alliance will be working to provide sonographers with education and information on proper ergonomic and prevention techniques. The first Alliance event will come in the form of the OSHA/SDMS Alliance Safety Island (OSASI) to be offered at the 2005 SDMS Annual Conference in Dallas, Texas.

The OSASI will provide an opportunity for participants at the SDMS Annual Conference to sign-up for individual ergonomic analysis sessions of their scanning technique by nationally recognized experts in the field of ergonomic prevention of MSD in the sonographer population. The OSASI will be physically located in the exhibit hall of the 2005 Annual Conference and will be ‘open for business’ throughout the course of the conference. The OSASI will feature one-on-one evaluation sessions and will be hosted in one of three ‘ergonomically correct’ scanning work-stations that will be part of the Safety Island. Additionally, one quadrant of the OSASI will be staffed by OSHA and National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) experts offering the latest educational updates to AC participants on prevention of MSD. The OSASI is a ‘first of its kind’ effort within the ultrasound community and has its origins traced back to the SDMS International Work Related Musculoskeletal Disorders Consensus Conference (WRMSDC) hosted by the association in May 2003.

There will be a total of 108 individual ergonomic evaluation sessions available to AC participants on a ‘first come, first served’’ basis at the Dallas-based fall event (October 6-8). Interested AC registrants will be asked to come to the OSHA information station within the safety island on the day that they are interested in having their ergonomic scanning evaluation done for schedule sign-up.

SDMS members are encouraged to sign-up for the Annual Conference; online registration available on the SDMS website at: https://secure.sdms.org/conference/registration.aspx AC hardcopy brochures, including registration forms, were mailed to all SDMS members in May.

 
  7. News & Notes

The News & Notes column includes links to web-based news articles of interest to sonographers. To submit articles, send the URL to webmaster@sdms.org

  
  8. Important Dates
2005  
June 30 SDMS Virtual Voting Booth Closes at 5:00 pm (CDT)
June 30 SDMS Educational Foundation Research Awards deadline
July 1 Sonographer Poster Exhibit Competition Deadline
July 1 Student Sonographer Poster Exhibit Competition Deadline
July 31 SDMS Educational Foundation Scholarship deadline
July 31 SDMS Educational Foundation CME Grants deadline
August 12 SDMS Annual Conference 'Early Bird' deadline - save $100!
Oct 1 - Oct 31 Medical Ultrasound Awareness Month
Oct 6 - 9 2005 SDMS Annual Conference, Dallas, Texas
Oct 10 - 11 SDMS Board of Directors Meeting, Dallas, Texas
November 30 SDMS Educational Foundation Scholarship deadline
Dallas DAZZLES! SDMS 2005 Annual Conference - Dallas, TX - Oct. 6-9, 2005
 
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© Copyright 2005. Society of Diagnostic Medical Sonography, Plano, TX. All Rights Reserved.