The image created via sonography is called a sonogram.
Introduced into the American medical system in the 1940s, sonography has since become an important tool in helping physicians make diagnoses and monitor treatments. Using pulses of high-frequency sound, a sonography machine receives the echoes of the pulses rebounding from a patient's body to create an image of internal structures. A sonographer is the medical professional who conducts sonography procedures, guiding the patient through the process and developing the images. She also maintains the specialized equipment and updates detailed medical records. Her salary is affected by factors such as location and employer type.
Average Salary
In its national employment survey carried out in 2009, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics gathered pay data from over 50,0000 sonographers. It concluded that the average yearly salary for the profession was $63,640. This is an increase from the figure produced by the Society of Diagnostic Medical Sonography in 2005, which was $61,985. It roughly tallies with figures produced by two wage comparison websites in 2011. Indeed.com listed the average annual pay for a medical sonographer as $69,000 while PayScale.com placed it between $46,584 and $67,161.
High and Low
The BLS also reported that the top 10 percent of sonographer earners received an average annual salary of $85,950, equivalent to $7,163 a month or $41.32 an hour, while their contemporaries in the lowest-earning 10 percent received $43,990, which translates to $3,666 each month and $21.15 per hour.
Salary by Industry
Medical sonographer salaries vary across different sectors of the health-care industry. The BLS found that specialty hospitals offered among the highest wages, averaging $67,070, as did positions in academia -- colleges, universities and professional schools -- $66,250. Outpatient care centers, the offices of physicians and general medical and surgical hospitals all paid comparable salaries -- $64,560, $63,820 and $63,770 respectively -- while medical and diagnostic laboratories were listed at $61,820.
Salary by Geography
A second factor that affects a medical sonographer's pay packet is their location. Across all industry sectors, the BLS found that a medical sonographer was likely to secure the best wage rates in Massachusetts -- $78,460 -- and Oregon -- $78,320. Colorado and Washington are also lucrative states, with averages of $77,380 and $76,980, respectively. In contrast, Alabama was listed at $50,320. The Santa Cruz, Watsonville district of California was listed as the best-paying metropolitan area -- $97,530 -- while Jackson, Tenn., was listed at just $54,600.
Prospects
The BLS expects to see an increase in employment opportunities of approximately 18 percent for medical sonographers in the decade from 2008 to 2018. Demand for diagnostic imaging will increase as the population grows and ages, with the comparative cost-effectiveness and safety of sonography -- compared to, say, radiologic imaging -- meaning it is increasingly favored by health-care providers.
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