Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP) has awarded initial accreditation to the Diagnostic Medical Sonography program at Clark State College.
The recent peer review conducted by the Joint Review Committee on Education in Diagnostic Medical Sonography (JRC-DMS) and CAAHEP’s Board of Directors recognized the program's compliance with the nationally established accreditation Standards.
"This has been a group effort with many individuals at Clark State and the community to achieve accreditation for the DMS program,” said Megan Platfoot, Program Director, Diagnostic Medical Sonography at Clark State. “Accreditation through CAAHEP will open the door for many more opportunities for our students before and after graduation. I look forward to continuing in my role as program coordinator as we help bring the next generation of sonographers to the workforce.”
Platfoot said accreditation through the Commission on CAAHEP ensures Clark State is providing the best Diagnostic Medical Sonography (DMS) program for its students and the community.
“We have been awarded this accreditation status after recommendation from the Joint Review Committee on Education in Diagnostic Medical Sonography (JRC-DMS),” she said. “We will continue to provide the best education for our DMS students and to work closely with our clinical affiliates to help bring more sonographers to the workforce.”
Clark State's DMS program is an abdominal, obstetrics, gynecology, and vascular ultrasound program. The program is located at the Leffel Lane campus in Springfield.
DMS is the non-invasive use of high frequency sound waves to image anatomic structures within the body. Sonographers are specially trained individuals who work under the close supervision of radiologists, cardiologists, and vascular surgeons in order to assist them in determining a medical diagnosis and treatment plan for patients. The sonographer is responsible for acquiring diagnostic images of normal and abnormal structures and reporting findings to the appropriate supervising physician.
Upon graduation, sonographers may be employed by hospitals, private physician practices, diagnostic imaging centers, research departments, and ultrasound machine manufacturers.
The DMS program combines didactic and clinical learning experiences that are within the legal scope of responsibility of sonographers. Clark State accepts a limited number of DMS students per year with technical classes beginning each fall.
“The CAAHEP accreditation is external recognition that our DMS program is a quality program for our students and is based on a review of the program as it currently stands,” said Dr. Rhoda Sommers, dean of health, human and public services at Clark State. “Employers in our region have been supportive of the DMS program and one of our current students was hired as a ‘student sonographer’ in June and has already signed on for a full-time position after graduation in December.”
More information is available online at: https://www.clarkstate.edu/academics/degrees-and-certificates/school-of-health-human-and-public-services/diagnostic-medical-sonography/