Examine medical instruments or equipment to ensure proper operation
Little of this can be handed to software today.
This happens in the physical world, so software agents do not touch it. Automation here means robotics and machinery, which is a different market from the one mapped on this site, on a much slower clock.
| How automatable | Barely automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Physical, manual and inspection work |
| Jobs that do it | 12 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | None |
| O*NET activity | Inspecting Equipment, Structures, or Materials (4.A.1.b.2) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 12 occupations that perform it.
- Pretest and calibrate anesthesia delivery systems and monitors.
- Check radiation therapy equipment to ensure proper operation.
- Inspect, clean, test, and maintain respiratory therapy equipment to ensure equipment is functioning safely and efficiently, ordering repairs when necessary.
- Identify malfunctioning equipment or devices.
- Calibrate and test anesthesia equipment.
- Test dosage evaluation instruments and survey meters to ensure they are operating properly.
- Check, test, and maintain cardiology equipment, making minor repairs when necessary, to ensure proper operation.
- Clean, check, and maintain sonographic equipment, submitting maintenance requests or performing minor repairs as necessary.
- Perform quality control checks on laboratory equipment or cameras.
- Complete quality control activities, monitor equipment operation, and report malfunctioning equipment to supervisor.
- Test magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) equipment to ensure proper functioning and performance in accordance with specifications.
- Obtain or inspect sterile or non-sterile surgical equipment, instruments, or supplies.
What we would actually use
Nothing in our landscape addresses this work. That is the honest answer rather than a padded list: this activity needs a person present, or a machine rather than a software agent.
Nothing on this site applies. Automation here is robotics and machinery, a different market on a much slower clock, and no software subscription moves it.
Chosen for the cheapest thing that does the job, not the best funded. Nothing on this site is sponsored, and the full landscape is there when you want to disagree with us.
How people actually do it
No workflow names this activity yet, but these automate the same kind of work, with the prompts to paste and what to keep for yourself.
Who does this work
12 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Anesthesiologist Assistants
- Cardiovascular Technologists and Technicians
- Critical Care Nurses
- Diagnostic Medical Sonographers
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging Technologists
- Nuclear Medicine Technologists
- Nurse Anesthetists
- Radiation Therapists
- Radiologic Technologists and Technicians
- Radiologists
- Respiratory Therapists
- Surgical Assistants
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Inspect commercial, industrial, or production systems or equipment”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
Method. The activity, its taxonomy placement and the occupations that perform it come straight from the public-domain O*NET 30.3 database. The automatability band is ours: we map each of O*NET’s 41 generalized work activities to how much of its output current software can produce, assuming a person still reviews and owns the result. It is a coarse three-way judgment on purpose. A precise-looking percentage here would be invented.