Lake Michigan College is launching a new Cardiac Sonography Program to help the region meet the needs of its healthcare providers.
The college has announced the new offering will be part of its broader Diagnostic Medical Sonography program, and it’s taken about a year to prepare. Program Chair Elizabeth Zak tells us recent renovations at the Benton Harbor campus have made it possible to begin training students in this high-demand field.
“This allows us to image the heart to look at for function, any mechanical or physiological abnormalities,” Zak said. “Most patients who have cardiac disease will end up having an echocardiogram at some point.”
Zak says with the new program, a student can enroll specifically to study cardiac sonography and earn the credentials needed to go to work for local healthcare providers. Those providers have expressed a need.
“A lot of our clinical partners had reached out to us in the last few years, stating they were having trouble finding echo techs to fill their positions. So I think it’s over a third of our clinical sites — and we have like 36 sites around us — are using traveler sonographers right now.”
Zak says the new program will include more than 800 clinical hours of hands-on training to ensure graduates are eligible for the board exams.
“My philosophy is that a combination of lecture courses, lab activity, and clinical rotations — the combination of the three actually is a successful mix for our students. They do better when they have the three different aspects of a program. So that’s how I built it.”
The new program is competitive with a limited number of openings. The first cohort will begin in September, and the deadline to apply is May 12.
“We are very excited to get the program started. It’s a big deal for the community for us to have that. I think our community will benefit greatly because they’ll have draw from graduates in the cardiac area. So this will be fantastic for our clinical environment and good for the college.”
According to LMC, the median annual wage for diagnostic medical sonographers is $89,340, with cardiac sonographers often earning at or above the median.
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