Part of the expanding PassProfessor catalog: The Registered Phlebology Sonographer (RPhS) is Cardiovascular Credentialing International’s specialty credential for professionals working in venous ultrasound (phlebology). The RPhS examination is a three-hour, computer-based examination of 170 questions — 150 scored and 20 unscored — built on CCI’s job task analysis and examination matrix, reported on a scaled range of 0 to 900 with a total scaled score of 650 required to pass. Candidates qualify through CCI’s published pathways for sonographers, advanced practitioners and physicians. PassProfessor’s RPhS program is in development at $59.
This program is part of the expanding PassProfessor catalog — join the notify list and we’ll email you when enrollment opens.
The program is in development, built on the published outline for this examination. Join the notify list and we will email you when enrollment opens — then use this guide to plan your preparation area by area.
The RPhS is the credential that names venous ultrasound — phlebology — as a specialty in its own right: the work is diagnostic, procedural and unforgiving of shallow preparation. PassProfessor’s RPhS program is in development as part of the expanding PassProfessor catalog, built on the examination matrix and qualification pathways CCI publishes at cci-online.org for the Registered Phlebology Sonographer examination. The program will be priced at $59 when enrollment opens.
Which cardiovascular credential is this?
This page covers RPhS — the Registered Phlebology Sonographer credential from Cardiovascular Credentialing International (CCI) — for professionals working in venous ultrasound (phlebology). Three clarifications. First, CCI’s cardiovascular credentials are distinct examinations with distinct eligibility pathways and distinct content matrices: RPhS is not the RVS, the RCS or the RCES, and experience or study toward one does not substitute for another’s blueprint. The RVS examines vascular ultrasound generally; the RPhS examines the venous system specifically, and candidates who hold the RVS will find one RPhS pathway written for them — the examinations themselves remain separate. Second, RPhS is a professional credential awarded by CCI on passing its examination; it is not a state license, and CCI states it does not endorse or recommend any third-party review course or material — this program is independent preparation. Third, eligibility is documentary: CCI approves an application against a named qualification pathway, with typed supporting documentation, before any examination date exists.
The real exam at a glance
| Fact of record | Detail |
|---|---|
| Credential | Registered Phlebology Sonographer (RPhS) — CCI specialty credential |
| Awarding body | Cardiovascular Credentialing International (CCI) |
| Examination | Three-hour computer-based examination of 170 questions: 150 scored and 20 unscored, indistinguishable from scored items. Two hours and fifty minutes are allotted to the questions, plus ten minutes for the tutorial and post-exam survey |
| Question types | Traditional multiple-choice plus CCI’s innovative item types — multiple-response, hot-spot and drag-and-place items (see the format note) |
| Delivery | Pearson VUE test centers, year-round; a 90-day eligibility window opens when CCI approves the application |
| Scoring | Total scores reported on a scale of 0 to 900; a total scaled score of 650 is required to pass, set by a standard-setting study. CCI states the scaled score does not equal a number or percentage of correct answers |
| Results | Unofficial score report at the test center with pass/fail status and the percentage of questions answered correctly in each content area; official results letter, certificate and wallet card from CCI in approximately 15 business days |
| Examination fee | $365 USD, including a $100 non-refundable application-processing fee (CCI-published figure) |
| Maintenance | First renewal: fee only, no CEUs, due in the following year. Thereafter triennial: renewal fee plus 36 CEUs per cycle for registry-level credentials, 30 of them cardiovascular-related, as CCI publishes |
| Program price | $59 (PassProfessor program price, when enrollment opens) |
Who can take the RPhS examination?
Every CCI applicant must hold a high school diploma or GED at the time of application, meet one of the credential’s qualification pathways, and provide typed documentation supporting the pathway claimed; CCI may request additional information, and processing a complete application takes a minimum of 15–20 business days. The RPhS is CCI’s specialty credential for venous ultrasound, and its pathways are deliberately wider than the registry credentials’: they reach sonographers, physician associates, nurse practitioners and physicians. This credential’s pathways are:
- RPhS1 — an active RVS or RVT credential, plus six months of full-time or full-time-equivalent diagnostic ultrasound employment experience in venous disease, plus 36 CEUs in the last four years documented in venous disease, ultrasound diagnosis, or vascular anatomy.
- RPhS2 — an associate degree or equivalent college hours (62 semester hours) in health, science, natural science, nursing, engineering or a primary science, plus one year of diagnostic ultrasound employment experience in venous disease, plus the same 36 CEUs in the last four years.
- RPhS3 — a baccalaureate degree in one of those fields, plus six months of diagnostic ultrasound employment experience in venous disease, plus the same 36 CEUs in the last four years.
- RPhS567 — a valid license to practice as a Physician Associate or Nurse Practitioner, plus six months of diagnostic ultrasound employment experience in limited or complete venous ultrasound studies.
- RPhS5 — a valid license to practice medicine, plus certification through the American Board of Venous and Lymphatic Medicine or an active RVS, RVT or RPVI credential, plus performance or direct supervision of a minimum of 150 venous studies within the two years before application.
- RPhS6 — a valid license to practice medicine, plus performance or direct supervision of a minimum of 200 venous studies within the two years before application.
- RPhS7 — a valid license to practice medicine, plus completion of a residency or fellowship including specialized clinical training in phlebology ultrasound performance and interpretation, with performance or direct supervision of a minimum of 200 venous ultrasound studies during the training program.
Once approved, CCI issues an Authorization to Test and a 90-day eligibility window opens; the examination is then scheduled with Pearson VUE. CCI also operates a pre-application process for criminal matters ($50, non-refundable) for applicants who need a determination before applying, as CCI publishes it. One dated change belongs in every RPhS candidate’s plan: effective February 1, 2027, CCI moves this examination to window testing, administered only during February and August each year, with application-receipt ranges mapped to each window on CCI’s credential page.
The outline, area by area
| Content area | Share of the examination |
|---|---|
| Maintaining information, facility, and safety | 9% |
| Patient diagnosis | 27% |
| Performance of diagnostic testing | 36% |
| Conservative treatment and therapy of patients | 9% |
| Minimally invasive and invasive treatment of patients | 20% |
What does Maintaining information, facility, and safety cover? (9%)
The professional frame around venous practice: collecting patient identifiers; universal precautions and sterile technique; facility emergency protocols; inspecting electromechanical equipment and performing preventive maintenance; optimizing the workspace and ergonomics — a career-length issue in sonography, examined as one; facilitating continuous quality improvement; and securing and archiving patient information. The examination treats the safety and information duties as part of the credential holder’s own work, not as someone else’s checklist.
How should you prepare for Maintaining information, facility, and safety? Survey the area early, note where your reasoning breaks down, and return with focused practice rather than rereading. The work here rewards applied judgment in realistic situations, so pair every block of reading with timed practice, then examine why each wrong option was wrong. Keep a running list of the distinctions this area tests most finely, and revisit the area in mixed practice before you test, so competence does not depend on knowing the topic in advance.
What separates strong candidates in Maintaining information, facility, and safety? Usually not more facts, but cleaner sequencing: recognizing the decisive feature of a situation first, discarding options that are true but not responsive, and choosing the action the situation calls for now rather than eventually. When you review practice in this area, classify every miss before you move on — knowledge gap, misread situation, or wrong priority — because each class has a different repair. Revisit the area in mixed practice before you test; competence that only appears when you know the topic in advance is not yet examination competence.
What does Patient diagnosis cover? (27%)
More than a quarter of the examination on the diagnostic reasoning that precedes and follows the scan: triaging patient status; obtaining a comprehensive history, including social history; performing the pertinent physical examination; reviewing post-treatment status against past venous history; establishing differential diagnoses, including comorbidity and medication effects; assisting in formulating the diagnostic plan; analyzing patient data; and assisting in formulating the treatment plan. CEAP classification, venous signs and symptoms, and risk factors — family history and genetics among them — are the working vocabulary of this area.
How should you prepare for Patient diagnosis? Start with the area’s core decisions and work outward to its edge cases. Preparation should alternate short reading blocks with timed questions on the same material, because retrieval under time pressure is the skill the sitting itself demands. Log every miss by cause — knowledge gap, misread situation, or wrong priority — since each cause has a different repair, and lumping them together hides the pattern your next study block should attack.
What separates strong candidates in Patient diagnosis? Depth shows as discrimination: the strong candidate separates the option that is merely plausible from the option the facts of the case actually support, and can say why the plausible one fails. Train that discrimination deliberately — after every practice block, write one line per miss naming the feature of the situation you underweighted. Over weeks that log becomes the most personal syllabus you own.
What does Performance of diagnostic testing cover? (36%)
The examination’s largest area, and the technical core of the credential: confirming the indications for the study; positioning the patient; selecting appropriate equipment and optimizing settings; selecting the transducer and optimizing frequency; performing abdominopelvic, lower-extremity and upper-extremity venous duplex studies; documenting the findings; and communicating unusual or abnormal findings. Venous anatomy, physiology and pathophysiology, hemodynamics, and ultrasound physics — instrumentation and the spectral Doppler, color Doppler and B-mode modalities — are examined here as performance, not as definitions.
How should you prepare for Performance of diagnostic testing? Treat this area as a set of decisions, not a set of facts: for each topic, ask what the practitioner must notice first, what must happen next, and what must never happen. Practise in timed blocks, review every error the same day, and return to the area after a gap of several days so that retention, not recognition, is what carries you.
What separates strong candidates in Performance of diagnostic testing? Command of this area looks quiet on the surface: fewer rereads, steadier pacing, and answers chosen for the situation presented rather than for the situation remembered from a textbook example. Build it by practising against varied presentations of the same underlying problem, so the principle, not the surface story, is what you learn to recognize.
What does Conservative treatment and therapy of patients cover? (9%)
The non-procedural management of venous and lymphatic disease: knowledge of conservative treatments generally; compression therapy in its indications and limits; pharmaceutical therapy; and the treatment of lymphedema and lipedema. The area is small by weight and clinically decisive — it examines whether the candidate knows what management looks like when no procedure follows, and how risk-factor modification and compression fit the diagnostic picture the earlier areas build.
How should you prepare for Conservative treatment and therapy of patients? Build a one-page map of this area before drilling it: its central concepts, its recurring traps, and the situations in which its rules change. Then work timed practice against that map, correcting the map whenever a question exposes a gap in it. Finish the area with mixed practice alongside earlier areas, so the knowledge has to be selected, not merely recalled.
What separates strong candidates in Conservative treatment and therapy of patients? Strong candidates protect this area’s marks by pacing: they bank time on the items they know cold and spend it where the situation is genuinely ambiguous, instead of bleeding minutes early and rushing late. Simulate that discipline in practice — set a per-block clock, mark-and-move on the second reread, and only return with time in hand.
What does Minimally invasive and invasive treatment of patients cover? (20%)
A fifth of the examination on the procedural side of phlebology practice: confirming signed informed consent; visual sclerotherapy; assisting in ultrasound-guided procedures; assisting in minimally invasive superficial venous treatment — phlebectomy, ablation and ligation; evaluating the patient before and after open surgical procedures, superficial venous interventions, and catheter-directed deep venous and abdominopelvic interventions; using patient- and physician-reported outcome measures; and providing discharge instructions. Complications of venous treatment run through the whole area.
How should you prepare for Minimally invasive and invasive treatment of patients? Survey the area early, note where your reasoning breaks down, and return with focused practice rather than rereading. The work here rewards applied judgment in realistic situations, so pair every block of reading with timed practice, then examine why each wrong option was wrong. Keep a running list of the distinctions this area tests most finely, and revisit the area in mixed practice before you test, so competence does not depend on knowing the topic in advance.
What separates strong candidates in Minimally invasive and invasive treatment of patients? Usually not more facts, but cleaner sequencing: recognizing the decisive feature of a situation first, discarding options that are true but not responsive, and choosing the action the situation calls for now rather than eventually. When you review practice in this area, classify every miss before you move on — knowledge gap, misread situation, or wrong priority — because each class has a different repair. Revisit the area in mixed practice before you test; competence that only appears when you know the topic in advance is not yet examination competence.
How is the RPhS examination scored?
CCI reports total scores on a scale from 0 to 900, and a total scaled score of 650 is required to pass. CCI is explicit about what that number is not: a scaled score does not equal the number or percentage of questions answered correctly. The number of correct answers needed to reach 650 was determined through a standard-setting (passing-score) study, and CCI reviews the passing score periodically with panels of experts from the specialty to assure its validity. Your score is based on the 150 scored questions; the 20 unscored questions are randomly distributed and unidentified, and exist so CCI can evaluate items for future examinations. At the test center you receive an unofficial report with your total score, your pass/fail status and a breakdown of the percentage of questions you answered correctly in each content area — that breakdown, not the scaled number, is the diagnostic tool for a candidate who must sit again.
An honest note about CCI’s innovative item types
Alongside traditional multiple-choice questions — four options, one correct or best answer — CCI examinations include innovative item types: multiple-response items, where two or three answers are correct from a list of four to six and the item tells you how many to select; hot-spot items, where you click one specific area of an image; and drag-and-place items, where labels must be dragged into the correct boxes on an image. PassProfessor’s program is question-based preparation: it trains the knowledge and clinical judgment those items examine, in question form — it does not reproduce CCI’s hot-spot or drag-and-place mechanics, and candidates should expect to meet those formats for the first time, as formats, inside CCI’s own published descriptions and self-assessment materials. The knowledge underneath them is the same knowledge this program drills, organized by CCI’s own examination matrix.
A dated change: window testing from February 2027
CCI has published a scheduling change that belongs in every RPhS study plan. Effective February 1, 2027, the RPhS examination transitions to a window testing format: the examination will be administered only during the months of February and August each year. CCI’s credential page maps application-receipt ranges to windows — applications received August 1 to December 31, 2026 map to the February 1–28, 2027 window; February 1 to June 30, 2027 to the August 1–31, 2027 window; and July 1 to December 31, 2027 to the February 1–29, 2028 window. Applicants approved before August 1, 2026 test within the dates on their Authorization to Test, provided those dates do not run beyond the close of the February 2027 window. CCI has also published the examination matrix that applies with the post-February 2027 preparation materials — Maintaining information, facility, and safety 7%; Patient diagnosis 25%; Performance of diagnostic testing 38%; Conservative treatment and therapy of patients 10%; Minimally invasive and invasive treatment of patients 20% — against the current matrix printed above (9% / 27% / 36% / 9% / 20%, each figure approximate as CCI publishes it). Plan against the matrix for the window you will actually sit.
What does the path from application to sitting look like?
CCI’s process is documentary before it is anything else, and candidates lose more time to paperwork than to the examination itself. You apply through your CCI online account, selecting the credential and the qualification pathway you claim, with the supporting documents — transcripts or completion certificates, employment verification letters, and clinical experience letters where the pathway requires them — uploaded as typed documentation. CCI reserves the right to request additional information, and processing a complete application takes a minimum of fifteen to twenty business days, so the application belongs weeks ahead of any intended test date, not days. Once approved, you receive an Authorization to Test by email, typically within two business days, and your ninety-day eligibility window opens: the examination must be scheduled with Pearson VUE and taken inside it. One extension of ninety days may be requested through your CCI account; if the examination is not taken by the end of the extension, the fee is forfeited and you reapply. Rescheduling runs through Pearson VUE and requires contact at least two full working days before the appointment — miss that deadline and the appointment cannot be moved. On the day, bring the two forms of identification CCI’s policy requires, with names matching your registration exactly, and expect the unofficial score report — total score, pass/fail status and your per-area percentages — before you leave the center. Plan backwards from your target date: documents first, application second, and a study plan whose final timed phase lands inside the eligibility window, not before it. Candidates who have not tested under CCI before should also read CCI’s published examination-day and identification rules in full before the appointment — the two-ID requirement and the exact-name rule are administrative, unforgiving, and entirely avoidable as failure causes.
How should you plan your preparation?
Phase one — map the examination (week one). Read the outline end to end and mark, honestly, the areas where your training is deep and the areas where it is thin. The weights in the table above tell you what the examination itself values; your map tells you where your hours buy the most.
Phase two — build by area. Work one content area at a time: read the authoritative material for the area, then take timed practice on it the same day, while the distinctions are still warm. Log every miss by cause — knowledge gap, misread situation, or wrong priority — because each cause has a different repair.
Phase three — mix and lengthen. Once every area has been touched, practice stops being organized by area: mixed blocks force you to select the right framework before you apply it, which is the skill the sitting actually tests. Lengthen blocks toward the real sitting’s duration so stamina is trained, not hoped for.
Phase four — simulate and repair. Sit full timed practice under examination conditions, review every error the same day, and spend the remaining days on the two weakest areas your results identify. Book the real sitting when full-length practice is consistently strong across areas, not when one favourite area is polished.
Frequently asked questions
What is the RPhS credential? The Registered Phlebology Sonographer: CCI’s credential for professionals working in venous ultrasound (phlebology), awarded on passing CCI’s 170-question examination after qualifying through one of CCI’s published pathways.
How many questions are on the examination? 170 questions in a three-hour sitting: 150 scored and 20 unscored. Two hours and fifty minutes are allotted to the questions, with ten minutes for the tutorial and post-exam survey. The unscored questions are not identified.
What score do I need to pass? A total scaled score of 650 on CCI’s 0–900 scale. CCI states that scaled scores do not equal a number or percentage of correct answers; the standard was set by a standard-setting study and is reviewed periodically with specialty expert panels.
Does the examination include non-multiple-choice items? Yes. Alongside traditional multiple-choice items, CCI uses innovative item types — multiple-response, hot-spot and drag-and-place items. This program is question-based preparation for the knowledge those items examine; it does not reproduce the hot-spot or drag-and-place mechanics. The exam guide covers this in full.
How do I know if I am eligible? CCI publishes named qualification pathways combining education, credentials and experience, summarized in the eligibility section above, with a pathway tool on CCI’s site. You must also hold a high school diploma or GED and document the pathway you claim; CCI approves the application before your 90-day testing window opens.
Are these CCI’s actual examination questions? No. When this program opens, its questions will be original practice questions written by PassProfessor to CCI’s published examination matrix. We never use actual examination items, recalled items, or another provider’s material. CCI does not endorse third-party review materials, and this program claims no endorsement.
How long do I have to test once CCI approves me? Approval opens a 90-day eligibility window: CCI emails your Authorization to Test, typically within two business days of approval, and the examination is scheduled with Pearson VUE inside that window. One 90-day extension may be requested through your CCI account.
Is the RPhS the same as the RVS? No. The RVS examines vascular ultrasound across arterial, venous, extracranial, abdominal and hemodialysis territories. The RPhS examines venous ultrasound specifically, including venous diagnosis and the conservative and procedural treatment of venous disease. They are separate CCI examinations with separate matrices; holding the RVS opens one RPhS eligibility pathway but does not exempt anyone from the RPhS examination.
What happens if I do not pass? Your unofficial report at the test center breaks down the percentage of questions answered correctly in each content area of the matrix — that breakdown is your study plan for the next sitting, because it shows which duties, not just which topics, cost you. Reapplication and rescheduling follow CCI’s published policies; rescheduling with Pearson VUE requires contact at least two full working days ahead.
How is the credential maintained? As CCI publishes it: a first renewal in the following year carries a renewal fee and a Code of Ethics signature, with no CEU requirement; thereafter the credential renews triennially with the renewal fee and 36 CEUs per cycle for registry-level credentials, 30 of them cardiovascular-related.
What do CCI’s own self-assessment examinations do? CCI publishes self-assessment examinations whose items follow the approximate proportions of the real examination matrix. They return a performance profile — your percentage of correct responses by content area — but no report of missed items and no feedback on incorrect responses, and CCI states their results neither guarantee nor indicate success on the real examination. Used well, they are a matrix-proportioned readiness check near the end of preparation, not a study method.
What changes in February 2027? Two things, both published by CCI: the examination moves to window testing in February and August each year, and the examination matrix published for the post-February 2027 preparation materials reweights the five duties (7% / 25% / 38% / 10% / 20%). The dedicated section above lays out the window map; plan against the matrix for the window you will sit.
When will enrollment open? The program is in development. Join the notify list on this page and we will email you when enrollment opens at the $59 program price.
Disclaimer
PassProfessor is an independent exam-preparation provider; this program is not endorsed by, affiliated with or sponsored by CCI. The credential name is used on this page as a factual reference to the certifying body’s examination. This program is examination preparation only: examination details on this page are drawn from the official sources recorded in the companion guide and are current as of November 2026; the certifying body’s official publications govern if anything here differs from them. The credential is awarded by CCI alone when all of its requirements are complete; this program confers no credential or license.