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Boston Career Explorer

Healthcare Practitioners and Technical

Diagnostic Medical Sonographers

Produce ultrasonic recordings of internal organs for use by physicians. Includes vascular technologists.

Also called: Cardiovascular Sonographer, Echo Tech (Echocardiographic Technician), Echosonographer Technologist (Echo Technologist), Medical Sonographer, RDMS (Registered Diagnostic Medical Sonographer), Registered Diagnostic Cardiac Sonographer

Compare with my current job (Healthcare Diagnosing or Treating Practitioners, All Other)
Median pay in Greater Boston
$109,200
$52.50/hr
Jobs in Greater Boston
1,590
Massachusetts 2024–2034
+10.1%
140 openings a year
Typical U.S. entry requirement
Associate's degree

Greater Boston: Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro area, May 2025. Growth and openings: Massachusetts statewide projection.

Pay range in Greater Boston

Yearly pay in Greater Boston by percentile
10th25thMedian75th90th
$98,660$104,060$109,200$129,710$135,810

10% of workers earn less than the first figure and 10% earn more than the last.

What you’d do

  • Observe screen during scan to ensure that image produced is satisfactory for diagnostic purposes, making adjustments to equipment as required.
  • Decide which images to include, looking for differences between healthy and pathological areas.
  • Operate ultrasound equipment to produce and record images of the motion, shape, and composition of blood, organs, tissues, or bodily masses, such as fluid accumulations.
  • Observe and care for patients throughout examinations to ensure their safety and comfort.
  • Provide sonogram and oral or written summary of technical findings to physician for use in medical diagnosis.
  • Select appropriate equipment settings and adjust patient positions to obtain the best sites and angles.

AI and this job

AI exposure: how much of this job’s work AI tools can do or help with, based on national research. It is not a forecast of job loss.

Moderate exposure42 of 100

The index averages three national research measures, each shown as a percentile of all jobs:

  • AIOE 39
  • Language-model AIOE 39
  • GPTs-are-GPTs 48

Observed AI use today: Little or none (Anthropic Economic Index)

AI tools could help with parts of this job, such as checking image quality and sorting out which images to keep. Right now there is little or no observed AI use in this work. Guiding the probe, caring for patients, and sharing findings with doctors still depend on a trained person, and demand is expected to grow as ultrasound is used in more areas of care.

Likely to change

  • Checking image quality during scans
  • Flagging differences between healthy and unhealthy areas

Still relies on people

  • Handling the probe and equipment by hand
  • Keeping patients safe and comfortable

What federal projections say

“Demand change - share increases as ultrasound technology is increasingly used in patient care across a broad range of clinical specialties, resulting in increased demand for sonographers.”
BLS Employment Projections 2025–35, factors affecting this job (U.S.)

Written with AI from the data on this page. Check with a career coach before making a decision.

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Training near Boston

College and school programs in the Boston metro area that lead to this job, with 2023-24 completions (IPEDS).

4 programs near Boston

Related occupations

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