Education · 1 of 5
The path
Two doors in: a direct-entry program, or a shorter program after another health credential.
- 1
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Grade 12 physics, biology, math and English.
- 2
Get in
0 to 4 years
Some programs take you straight from high school into a 2 to 3 year diploma. Many others require a prior health diploma or degree, or 2 years of university science, and then run 1 to 2 years. Competition is intense either way.
- 3
Sonography program
1 to 3 years
Physics of ultrasound, anatomy, scanning labs, then months of full-time unpaid clinical placement. You learn generalist scanning, or cardiac, or both.
- 4
Write the Sonography Canada exams
During or after the program
A core exam plus a specialty exam, merging into one exam per specialty from 2027. Passing gives you the CRGS (Canadian Registered Generalist Sonographer) or CRCS (Canadian Registered Cardiac Sonographer) credential.
- 5
Register where required
A few weeks
In Ontario that is the CMRITO (College of Medical Radiation and Imaging Technologists of Ontario). Elsewhere, employers require the Sonography Canada credential.