Needs Assessment

Abdominal US tomography promises early disease detection, but a practical array and system does not yet exist. We are developing transducer hardware, machine learning approaches, and waveform inversion techniques for a semicircular abdominal array.

Ideally, our healthcare system would be less reactive to symptoms, with qualitative US imaging dependent on operator skill. Rather, individuals would be empowered and proactive, with access to quantitative tomographic US imaging as part of their longitudinal health record, and radiomics could detect pre-symptomatic disease from this dataset to achieve better outcomes.

Additional education is needed on the knowledge of the limitations of conventional qualitative pulse-echo ultrasound imaging, and both the potential and challenges of quantitative ultrasound tomography.

Reference(s):
1. Waldman SA, Terzic A. Healthcare evolves from reactive to proactive. Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics. 2019 Jan;105(1):10.
2. Lambin P, Leijenaar RT, Deist TM, Peerlings J, De Jong EE, Van Timmeren J, Sanduleanu S, Larue RT, Even AJ, Jochems A, Van Wijk Y. Radiomics: the bridge between medical imaging and personalized medicine. Nature reviews Clinical oncology. 2017 Dec;14(12):749-62.

Learning Objective(s)

After participating in this activity, learners should be able to:

• Identify the assumptions and limitations underlying pulse-echo ultrasound imaging.
• Articulate current implementations of ultrasound tomography, and the challenges of abdominal imaging.
• Discuss the technical need for: (1) low-frequency, broadband transducers, (2) accelerated waveform inversion methods, and (3) scalability of system hardware, data acquisition, and processing capabilities.

Faculty: Carl Herickhoff, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering UMRF Research Professor University of Memphis.

Target Audience: This webinar is designed to meet the needs of radiologists, hepatologists, nephrologists, gastroenterologists, as well as other clinicians with an interest in tomographic ultrasound imaging.

Available Credit: 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™/1 ARRT Category A credit(s). Upon completion of the learning activity, you will have 2 attempts to successfully pass the post-test with a score of at least 80% and claim your certificate.

AIUM Member: $0
Nonmember: $19

Join the AIUM today to access and earn for free.

Your fee includes access to the content and the opportunity to submit the CME test. 

Estimated time to complete activity: 1 hour

ACCME Accreditation

The American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM) is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™

The AIUM designates this internet enduring material for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

AIUM Ultrasound Practice Accreditation

This activity can be used to meet part of relevant AIUM Training Guidelines and/or maintenance credits for accreditation purposes. Learn more about AIUM Ultrasound Practice Accreditation here.

ARRT Category A Credit 

The AIUM is a Recognized Continuing Education Evaluation Mechanism (RCEEM) for the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists (ARRT). The AIUM is the owner and sponsor of this activity. This activity is approved by the AIUM for 1 ARRT Category A credit. This CE activity may be available in multiple formats or from different CE sponsors. ARRT does not allow CE activities (e.g., Internet courses, home study programs, directed readings, live lectures) to be repeated for CE credit in the same CE biennium.

Additional Credit Information

• American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography (ARDMS). The ARDMS accepts AMA PRA Category 1 CME Credit(s)™.

Documenting CME Credits

All participants who pass the post-test with a score of at least 80% will have access to claim a CME certificate. The AIUM will submit credits to the ARDMS for active AIUM membership accounts with a valid ARDMS ID number. It is the participant’s responsibility to ensure credit accuracy and adherence to any audit requests.

Disclosure Policy:

In accordance with the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education's (ACCME) Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education, the American Institute of Ultrasound Medicine (AIUM) requires those in control of educational content to disclose their financial relationships with ineligible companies* within the prior 24 months. Individuals must disclose all financial relationships with ineligible companies*, regardless of the amount and regardless of their view of the relevance of the relationship to the education. * Ineligible companies are defined by the ACCME as companies whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing health care products used by or on patients. For specific examples of ineligible companies, visit accme.org/standards
As an accredited provider, AIUM must collect information from all planners, faculty and others in the planning and control of continuing medical education (CME) activities to disclose all of their financial relationships with ineligible companies within the prior 24 months. There is no minimum financial threshold; individuals must disclose all financial relationships, regardless of the amount, in ineligible companies. Individuals must disclose financial relationships with ineligible companies regardless of their view of the relevance of the relationship to the education.
AIUM has implemented a system to resolve conflicts of interest for each CME activity to help ensure content is objective, fair balanced, independent, and free of commercial bias. Conflicts, if any, are resolved through one or more processes. All relevant conflicts pertaining to this activity have been mitigated.

The following faculty/planners have disclosed the following financial relationships with ineligible companies:
Pengfei Song, PhD, panelist, Patent: Alpinion Medical Systems, GE HealthCare, Mindray, Samsung
Alycen Wiacek, PhD, panelist, Patent: CohereNet

The following faculty/planners of this educational activity have no relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.

Carl Herickhoff, Ph.D., faculty/planner, Charlotte Henningsen, MS, RT(R), clinical reviewer.

AIUM education planners and staff: Nicole Fortune and Ashley McDermott, has no financial relationships with an ineligible company to disclose.

Commercial Support:
There is no commercial support funding for this activity.