News
Hamad Ghazle

A digital anatomy table programmed with dynamic medical simulations is changing how RIT physician assistant students learn about the human body. Three-dimensional simulations modeled on real cadavers allow students to understand how the body functions as a system and deteriorates from disease.

Two RIT students graduating next week continue their family legacies while pioneering unique paths in their fields.

Jenny Kron ’15 was 37 years old with three kids and a mortgage when she enrolled in RIT’s diagnostic medical sonography program full time. Prior to that, she ran an at-home daycare for 13 years. Now, she is running her own successful mobile ultrasound business called Hey, Baby! Mobile 4D Ultrasound.

RIT’s College of Health Sciences and Technology is preparing for significant growth with a new streamlined organizational structure. The move clarifies direct reporting and aligns the college with the university’s model of grouping programs under departments.

The diagnostic medical sonography program at RIT was awarded continuing accreditation in compliance with national standards and guidelines established by the profession.

Nearly 60 students will graduate this May from the College of Health Sciences and Technology’s clinical programs—physician assistant BS/MS, diagnostic medical sonography BS, and the echocardiography (cardiac ultrasound) certificate program. These students spend the final year of their programs immersed in practical work experience at clinics and hospitals in the region.

Carestream Health Inc. continues to support the education of sonographers at RIT through a new donation of ultrasound equipment valued at more than $1.2 million. This is the second donation Carestream has made during this academic year to RIT’s diagnostic medical sonography program, with a combined total exceeding $1.4 million.

Michelle Magee ’05 MS, senior associate director for Employment Engagement in the Office of Career Services and Cooperative Education; Hamad Ghazle ’88, director of the diagnostic medical sonography program; Kerry Hughes ’03 MS, project and events manager for the Office of the Provost; and David Long ’16 Ph.D., director of RIT MAGIC Center, and were honored with the Golden Brick Award for going above and beyond their duties to volunteer or serve in leadership roles at RIT.

The donation includes four premier and mid-tier ultrasound systems, transducers, simulators and related devices. The addition to the RIT sonography scanning suite enables students to practice on different models before beginning their clinical internships.

Elena Zambito will graduate this May from RIT’s diagnostic medical sonography program, and she is already finding ways to enhance her new field. Her goal is to land a cardiac sonographer position at a leading research hospital like the Mayo Clinic and discover ways to reduce the high rates of injury among sonographers.

Intersections: The RIT Podcast, Ep. 12: People seeking a career in medicine have many paths from which to choose. Hamad Ghazle, professor in the College of Health Sciences and Technology, and Jodie Crowley, clinical coordinator for the diagnostic medical sonography program, discuss career opportunities in the field of ultrasound.

Hamad Ghazle left war-torn Lebanon on a scholarship to Georgetown University in the 1980s. Within a year, he transferred to RIT to study ultrasound. He graduated with his BS in 1988 and returned in 1994 to lead the program. Since then, Ghazle has graduated hundreds of sonography students, helping them navigate the profession that means so much to him.