Frequently Asked Questions

No prior radiological or scanning experience, certification, or academic coursework are required to take this course. However, once you have registered for our program, you will be given access to our own online Prerequisite Course, which is meant to be a primer (or refresher) for the topics we will cover in more depth during the 3-day course. Two weeks before the didactic lectures, we will email information to you about how to access our Prerequisite Course. This online Prerequisite Course must be completed prior to attending the online lectures.

This is a hybrid online and in-person course. The first 2 days of the course consist of lectures that will be delivered online. However, to complete the course, an in person session is required where students will complete their supervised volunteer scans and analysis and the final exam. The in person training will take place over 1.5 days – either Thursday, 8am to Friday ~12:30pm OR Friday 10:30am to Saturday ~3:30pm.

Although you will have all the knowledge to successfully perform DXA scans by the end of the course, you cannot legally perform DXA scans until you obtain your permit from the California Department of Public Health. If you would like to continue training when returning to your clinic/employer, you may practice positioning and analysis under the supervision of a certified DXA technician, but you must not be the one to “press Go” on the machine or be in the exam room with the patient/client when X-Rays are being emitted.

After successfully completing our course, it takes about 3-4 months to receive your license from the state. After receiving the diploma from our course, you must submit all necessary application paperwork to the California Department of Public Health – Radiological Department – this includes (1) the Application; (2) course diploma; (3) Application Fee of $112. It will then take 3-6 weeks for the state’s certification unit to mail notification of exam eligibility to each individual student. You will have one calendar year to pay the exam fee ($150) and take the exam. Once you complete the exam, you will receive notification if you passed and will receive your license in 4-6 weeks.

Please note that you are not legally allowed to perform any DXA scans before you receive your permit or permit number.

Our course fulfills the specific requirements for the California Limited X-ray Technician Permit for Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) only.

If have a current CRT license, you are already qualified to perform DXA scans in California. If you are looking for specific training for DXA, we recommend looking for CE courses elsewhere or contacting your DXA machine support team for training. We hope to offer CE courses in the future.

If you have a Limited X-Ray Technician Permit in another modality (such as Dental, Core, Extremities, etc), you will need the specific “X-ray Technician Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) Permit” to perform DXA scans.

Additionally, our course does not meet the requirements to obtain ARRT’s Secondary Credential in Bone Densitometry. Please contact ARRT directly for more information on that Secondary Credential.

The ARRT Credential in Bone Densitometry is NOT the same as the California Limited X-Ray Technician Permit for DXA. Since our course is specifically for the Limited Permit, it does not meet the ARRT credential requirements. We recommend visiting the ARRT website for more specific information on how to obtain their credential.

Please note that the ARRT secondary credential is not required to perform DXAs in California, though some employers may require this additional credential.

In order to pass our course, you must obtain a minimum of 80% on both our final written exam and our clinical competency evaluation.

If you do not pass the written exam, you will have the opportunity to re-take it within 1 month. We prefer that you retake the test with us in person. However, you can retake the test while being monitored over Zoom for a $100 fee. If you do not score at least 80% on the second exam, we will ask you to retake the didactic-only portion of our course at a reduced fee from the full course ($400). 

If you do not pass the clinical competency evaluation, you will be allowed to return for additional clinical training. Fees associated with this training will vary depending upon the degree of support required ($1,000-$1,500). 

You have one calendar year between receiving your initial eligibility notice from the state to pay for and take your exam. If you do not pass the exam the first time, you will need to pay the exam fee again to retake the test. If you are unable to pass the state exam within one year, you will need to reapply to the state for eligibility but you do not need to re-take our course for a new diploma. 

Once you obtain your certification from the state, it is valid for 2 years. You must obtain 24 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) before your permit expires. You will receive a notification from the state 45-90 days prior to your permit expiration date, including a form to report you CEUs. Currently, the renewal fee is $104. Valid CEUs are regularly available from online education platforms and can easily be searched for. 

Our course is held at our research laboratory (EPARC) at the Qualcomm Institute on the main campus at UC San Diego in La Jolla, California. We are located in the Atkinson Hall Building. Specific driving and parking information will be provided to students when they register.

We understand parking can be quite difficult here at the UCSD Campus. If you choose to park on campus, you will need to purchase a permit each day. You can visit the UCSD Parking site for current parking rates.  Hopkins Parking Structure on the corner of Hopkins Drive and Voigt Drive is the closest parking structure to our building, where there are Visitor parking spots (labeled “V”) available. Hopkins Parking Structure is located a 10-minute walk west of our course location in Atkinson Hall. There are also Discount (D) and Super-Saver ($) Parking lots located closer to Genessee Avenue/Regents Road with a much cheaper daily rate. On weekdays, you can take the free university shuttle from these lots to the Central Campus Station, which is a ~6 minute walk from Atkinson Hall.

If you would rather not pay for parking, a free, dirt parking lot called “Torrey Pines Gliderport” is located northwest of Atkinson Hall. This is about a 20-30 minute walk away, so please plan accordingly.

Ubers, Lyfts, e-scooters, etc. are also readily available in the area. You can direct them to: 3195 Voigt Dr, La Jolla, CA 92093

Public Transportation: We highly recommend the new MTS Blue Line Trolley to the UCSD Central Campus Station, which is only a 6 minute walk from our building. There are free parking lots at select trolley stations. There are also MTS Bus Stops located along the perimeter of UCSD Campus.

As you will be interacting with patients and research subjects from the community, we ask that you dress as appropriate for the office/lab setting, i.e, no band or large-logo t-shirts, shorts, flip-flops, sandals, clothing with holes, etc. Scrubs are not necessary but are an example of appropriate attire. Tattoo cover up and piercing removal are also not required. 

Our course fee is $2,500.

We use Eventbrite as our registration site, which charges an additional ~6% non-refundable transaction fee.

• Course materials: Lecture handouts, positioning and analysis quick reference guides, and a comprehensive study packet including study guides and sample test(s)
• All instruction and practice scans needed to sit for the state test
• Access to our online prerequisite training and video library
• Snacks, refreshments, and lunch are provided during your in-person training days at our lab.

• Local accommodations and transportation (we can provide a list of UCSD-partnered hotels nearby that may offer a discounted rate)
• UCSD Campus parking fees (Please visit the UCSD Parking site for current rates)
• State Application Fee ($112)
• State Exam Fee ($150)

Unfortunately, we do not offer any financial aid, scholarships, or discounts at this time.

Our course is heavily impacted due to our limited availability. We are now enrolling students based on our rolling waitlist. To join the waitlist, you can find the link on our Registration page. Once it is your turn next on the list, you will receive a direct email with the link to complete registration or defer to a future class date. You may defer up to 2 times before being moved to the bottom of the waitlist. 

We highly recommend adding our email address (ucsdboneschool@gmail.com) to your email contacts to avoid our email notifications going to spam. You will be removed from the waitlist if you do not respond to email notifications.

We may occasionally open registration to the full waitlist if we have last-minute cancelations.

There will be different “ticket” options available when registering on Eventbrite. Each option lists a different set of dates and/or a different machine preference. If you are already working at a facility that uses a specific type of DXA machine (Hologic or GE Lunar), we highly recommend that you find out which one it is and pick that machine for training with us. HOWEVER, if your preferred machine type is no longer available OR you don’t have a preferred machine – don’t worry! The basic techniques are the same on both machines and we can point out the small differences if you’d like. Additionally, the state’s permit exam is not machine specific, so you will still learn everything you need to know!

**Eventbrite’s fees are non-refundable**
100% registration refund up to 4 weeks before registration close.
75% refund from 4 weeks to registration close.
No refunds available once registration has closed, 2 weeks before the start of class.

You are eligible to receive free scans through our program if you are referred to us by your physician or are able to have your primary physician sign our “MD Clearance” form.

You are not eligible for scans if any of the following are apply to you:

1.  You weigh more than 350 pounds
2.  You cannot lie still on your back for 6-8 minutes (eg. No tremors)
3.  You have had partial or full hip replacement in BOTH hips (hip replacement in one hip is okay)
4.  You have had medical imaging requiring dye in the 2 weeks prior to your scan appointment
5.  If there is any chance you may be pregnant. Additionally, scans may not be very accurate if you are currently breastfeeding
6. If you are unwilling to be scanned by our technician trainees
7. If you are unwilling to complete all 4 scans required for training: a whole body scan (head to toes), single hip scan, lumbar spine scan, and a forearm scan

Please email us at ucsdboneschool@gmail.com or call our main line at (858) 822-7624 to provide your name, contact information (phone and email), and how you heard about about program. We will then add you to our list of interested volunteers and we will call you when appointments become available.

We have had a tremendous amount of interest in these volunteer appointments. Since these appointments are very limited and only occur during our technician training sessions 5 times per year, it may take a few months before we can schedule an appointment for you. We appreciate your patience! We do ask that you to submit your signed “MD Clearance Form” as soon as possible (even without a scheduled appointment) as this can help expedite the scheduling process, especially if there are last-minute appointments available.

In order to properly train our students, they must complete at least 4 scans on each volunteer. Ideally, you will receive 1 whole body scan (for body composition), 1 hip scan, 1 lumbar spine scan, and 1 forearm scan. If you were referred to us directly by one of our associated physicians at UCSD, we may be able to accommodate another scan at their request and time permitting

If you would prefer to complete all 4 scans or be scanned by our trainees, we offer DXA scans at our lab on a fee-for-service basis. At these appointments (which are much more readily available), our certified staff technicians will complete the scans.  Please Contact Us if you would prefer this option.

You will receive a comprehensive report with your results via email within about 2 weeks of your scan.  If you were referred to us by one of our associated physicians at UCSD, we will also send the results to them directly. If your physician signed an “MD Clearance” form, they must check the report request box at the bottom and provide either their fax number (preferred) or email address for us to send them a copy of your results report.

Appointments are usually about 1 hour, but may take up to 90 minutes. The actual on-the-table scan time is about 15-20 minutes.

All volunteers will receive a results report with some general information about bone density and body composition measures, followed by their individual scan results.

Feedback regarding your bone density measures should be discussed with your referring physician (the physician who signs your clearance form). Our staff do not discuss individual bone density results or treatment options.

Feedback regarding your body composition measures is available for a small fee. A 30-minute virtual consultation with one of our masters-level exercise physiologists regarding your individual results is available for $50.

We are located on the main UCSD Campus in La Jolla, CA (west of the I-5 Freeway and the UCSD Medical Center campus). Our lab is on the 3rd floor of Atkinson Hall/CALIT2/Qualcomm Institute, but the building is locked during the weekends, so we request that you call our DXA School phone (858-822-7624) when you arrive for your appointment.

Once we schedule your appointment, you will be assigned a parking spot in the reserved parking lot adjacent to our building: Lot P503 on the corner of Voigt Drive and Engineers Lane. Please do not park here for any other time than your appointment as you may be receive a ticket. 

The Exercise and Physical Activity Resource Center (EPARC) at UC San Diego is at the cutting edge of health science technology, and home to our School of Bone Densitometry.  However, we don’t only do research on bone health; we conduct LOTS of research into health, exercise capacity, exercise efficiency, and technology in health.   If you are interested in seeing what other studies are being conducted, and/or volunteering for research studies at EPARC, visit eparc.ucsd.edu, call (858) 534-9315, or email eparc@ucsd.edu for more information.