How Our Renewal and Examination Fees Work For You

When you pay an examination fee or renew with the American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography (ARDMS), you are reaffirming your role in the ARDMS mission to set the standard for excellence in sonography and enable exceptional patient care, while distinguishing yourself as an expert to your employer and colleagues. ARDMS, as an accredited non-profit organization, reinvests examination and renewal fees directly back into work that serves our Registrants and furthers our joint mission.  

As the recognized standard for credentialing in Sonography, our partnership with you is more important than ever. Below are just a few examples of how our fees help drive advances in healthcare. 

Examination Development and Administration 

A large portion of our fees goes directly back to the examinations themselves – both the development and administration of examinations. As a testing organization, we hold our examinations to the highest standards to promote validity, reliability, and fairness. To achieve this, whether it’s a new examination or one we have offered for years, many things need to happen behind the scenes. Only a few of the development steps are included in this article but you can find detailed information here. Further, to protect the integrity of the examinations, we’ve chosen a test administration company that maintains a high level of diligence for secure and proper examination administration. 

• Item Development – our examinations require questions that are written by volunteers – item writers who are professionals practicing in that specialty – who write, edit and review the items.  Items often go through several rounds of review and editing before they can be approved. 
• Item Development Workshops (IDWs) – our item writers receive training by test development staff regarding how to write quality test questions. 
• Job Task Analysis (JTA) – surveys are conducted every 3-5 years for each examination to allow for review of examination content to ensure they remain current with technological advances and changes in the profession. 
• Content Outline Development – based on the results of the JTA, a content outline is developed and guides the content of the examination. 

Awareness Campaigns 

• Launched in 2018, ARDMS, and like-minded organizations (including AIUM, ASE, IAC, JRC-CVT, JRC-DMS, SDMS and SVU) created the Community Engagement Group (CEG) to identify areas of collaborative efforts to ensure the sonographer profession is ready to meet the challenges of a changing healthcare environment. The CEG hosts regular meetings and summits and conducts surveys to better meet and understand the needs of sonographers. Its first initiative has been to stop work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMSD) resulting from the performance of diagnostic medical ultrasound. You can learn more about the steps we’ve taken here. 
• Inteleos has established the Ultrasound Proficiency Grand Challenge with the goal to assure that by 2030 every user of medical ultrasound in the world will be proficient, ensuring patient safety and increasing equity in healthcare.  This program also includes a partnership with RAD-AID.  
• Inteleos has also secured a partnership with the Kenya Women and Children’s Wellness Centre to address maternal and fetal health issues. 

Advancing Technology 

• Secure online proctoring services are now available for many ARDMS examinations, with more examinations soon to be added.  

• ARDMS is investing in simulation, artificial intelligence, machine learning and virtual reality to broaden access to education, training, and certification to meet healthcare professionals where and how they practice – easing the burden on earning and maintaining credentials. 
• ARDMS introduced new digital platforms to aid volunteers in their examination development roles. 
• ARDMS invested in new software systems to enhance your overall customer experience, from communication to application management and document submission, our goal is to make working with us easier for you. 
• ARDMS partnered with Credly to provide digital badges for all awarded credentials. These badges act as a quick reference, offering the viewer a description of what was awarded, the steps taken to earn it, skills tied to the earner’s accomplishments and links to additional information about the badge and qualifications. Learn more about the program here. 

COVID-19 Resources 

• Working with a dedicated team of communication specialists, ARDMS launched the ARDMS Facebook Group to provide a community, support, and resources for sonographers during the pandemic. Together, we created a COVID-19 resource section for the website which included articles, podcasts, and videos pertinent to our healthcare community. Your organization also advocated for PPE access during the pandemic and instituted special accommodations for various programs, including examination eligibility and administration extensions. 
• ARDMS partnered with the American Psychological Association (APA) to launch a free Mental Health webinar series that offered support and guidance for healthcare professionals dealing with the mental health issues brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. While the free CMEs are no longer available, you can still access the recordings here.  

For enhanced self-serve options – log in to MY ARDMS to print personalized windowed examination score reports, digital ID cards, status verification letters, and upload your CMEs into the CME Bank. 

Please be sure to share any feedback on the above-mentioned programs – we welcome your thoughts, ideas, and contributions! Thank you for everything you do to serve patients and improve healthcare.