Examine patients to assess general physical condition
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 | 29 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 29 occupations that perform it.
- Assess clients' cognitive abilities and physical and emotional needs to determine appropriate interventions.
- Evaluate the functioning of the neuromuscularskeletal system and the spine using systems of chiropractic diagnosis.
- Examine patients to obtain information about their physical condition.
- Perform and document an initial exam, evaluating data to identify problems and determine a diagnosis prior to intervention.
- Check for side effects, such as skin irritation, nausea, or hair loss to assess patients' reaction to treatment.
- Examine animals to detect and determine the nature of diseases or injuries.
- Perform physical examinations, make tentative diagnoses, and treat patients en route to hospitals or at disaster site triage centers.
- Provide routine physical health screenings to detect or monitor problems such as heart disease and diabetes.
- Observe, interview, and assess patients to identify care needs.
- Perform pre-anesthetic screenings, including physical evaluations and patient interviews, and document results.
- Monitor fetal development by listening to fetal heartbeat, taking external uterine measurements, identifying fetal position, or estimating fetal size and weight.
- Perform routine or annual physical examinations.
- Administer hearing tests and examine patients to collect information on type and degree of impairment, using specialized instruments and electronic equipment.
- Examine patient, obtain medical history, and use diagnostic tests to determine risk during surgical, obstetrical, and other medical procedures.
- Conduct complete skin examinations.
- Examine patients to obtain information about functional status of areas, such as vision, physical strength, coordination, reflexes, sensations, language skills, cognitive abilities, and mental status.
- Examine patients or order, perform, and interpret diagnostic tests to obtain information on medical condition and determine diagnosis.
- Examine or conduct laboratory or diagnostic tests on patients to provide information on general physical condition or mental disorder.
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
29 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Acupuncturists
- Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurses
- Allergists and Immunologists
- Anesthesiologists
- Audiologists
- Chiropractors
- Clinical Nurse Specialists
- Dermatologists
- Midwives
- Naturopathic Physicians
- Neurologists
- Nurse Anesthetists
- Nurse Midwives
- Nurse Practitioners
- Orthopedic Surgeons, Except Pediatric
- Orthoptists
- Orthotists and Prosthetists
- Pediatric Surgeons
- Pediatricians, General
- Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physicians
- Physical Therapists
- Physician Assistants
- Psychiatric Technicians
- Psychiatrists
- Radiation Therapists
- Registered Nurses
- Social and Human Service Assistants
- Sports Medicine Physicians
- Veterinarians
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Examine people or animals to assess health conditions or physical characteristics”. 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.