December 2005 | Vol. 23, No. 12

SVU Affiliated Chapters Celebrate MUAM

For the third year in a row, SVU participated in the celebration in October as Medical Ultrasound Awareness Month (MUAM), along with AIUM, ARDMS, ASE, CCI, and SDMS. The goal of Medical Ultrasound Awareness Month is to increase the public’s knowledge about medical ultrasound and its many uses in health care. Congratulations to those SVU Affiliated Chapters who celebrated MUAM last October and promoted medical ultrasound in their communities.

Houston Society of Noninvasive Vascular Technology (HSNIVT)

In honor of Medical Ultrasound Awareness Month, HSNIVT held a Fall Vascular Forum. The HSNIVT group formally invited the Greater Houston Society of Echocardiography, all general practitioners, radiologists, scientists from Johnson Space Center, students from various colleges in diagnostic imaging and the entire ultrasound community in the greater Houston area. They had about fifty participants attend and everyone enjoyed the speakers and great food. They offered topics of "Ultrasound in Space Research" and "Endothelial Function and Dysfunction" for two CME's.

The faculty of cardiovascular imaging at Alvin Community College (ACC), several of the ACC imaging students, Jessica Murphy, Vice President of HSNIVT, and Kathleen Garcia, HSNIVT President, attended the annual meeting of the Society of Diagnostic Medical Ultrasound in Dallas, Texas. Everyone attended lectures on ultrasound issues and Kathleen Garcia gave a luncheon lecture entitled "Vascular Ultrasound Research: The Journey to Mars".

Alvin Community College held a Fall Fitness Fair for the local community in the Alvin, Texas area (see photo). Students and faculty performed about 60 ultrasound procedures including Extracranial Carotid Ultrasound and Ankle Brachial Index Screening. They also held live demos and tours of there ultrasound teaching facility to the general public.

Eastern Virginia Vascular Technologists (EVVT)

Jeanette A. Justice, BS RVT, President of the EVVT, reported on how they celebrated Medical Ultrasound Awareness Month. At Sentara Norfolk General Hospital and Sentara Leigh Hospital, Kathryn Sorrell had self proclaimed one whole week of MAUM as Vascular Ultrasound week. On Tuesday, October 18th, they set up an educational/awareness campaign outside of the cafeteria. They had poster presentations for the different types of exams that they perform. They also had a "meet the staff" poster which consisted of pictures of their staff. They displayed some of the many Journal of Vascular Ultrasound article publications that their techs have authored. One of the best activities was setting up a Phillips IU22 and a Parks Doppler. The staff demonstrated various tests on the bystanders. It was so much fun for everyone that they had a line of people extending into the cafeteria. Each day for a week, prizes were given to the technologist who answered a vascular trivia question correct.

North Jersey Vascular Association (NJVA)

For NJVA’s October chapter meeting, their students composed a wonderful poster presentation showing the many areas that ultrasound can be implemented in the field of vascular technology. Chapter members who work in a hospital setting were encouraged to seek out other ultrasound departments (i.e. cardiac, ob, and general) and set up some sort of combined display to educate the public and other hospital employees about the different uses of ultrasound and the new up-to- date technology. In addition, NJVA Chapter President Jeanette Flannery did the following MUAM activities at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center. The General, OB, Cardiac Noninvasive and Vascular Noninvasive departments each chose a day to set up a display showing the different ways ultrasound can be used in their respective departments. It was very well received at their institution. Literature was handed out, real time imaging was played on monitors and many questions were answered. In fact some of the general public requested names of ultrasound schools in the area. Administration was also impressed which is always a positive effect. It was interesting to see how many people really don't understand what the participating departments can do for them when in comes to diagnosis.

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Want more information to promote medical ultrasound in your community? Use the MUAM Information Kit to guide you in creating your own medical ultrasound awareness campaign any time during the year. Check out http://www.svunet.org/newsroom/072205-muam.htm for details and mark MUAM on your calendar for October 2006.