Operate diagnostic or therapeutic medical instruments or equipment
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 | 26 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | None |
| O*NET activity | Controlling Machines and Processes (4.A.3.a.3) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 26 occupations that perform it.
- Use dental air turbines, hand instruments, dental appliances, or surgical implements.
- Administer treatment involving application of physical agents, using equipment, moist packs, ultraviolet or infrared lamps, or ultrasound machines.
- Administer prescribed doses of radiation to specific body parts, using radiation therapy equipment according to established practices and standards.
- Set up and operate devices, such as mechanical ventilators, therapeutic gas administration apparatus, environmental control systems, or aerosol generators, following specified parameters of treatment.
- Administer hearing or speech and language evaluations, tests, or examinations to patients to collect information on type and degree of impairments, using written or oral tests or special instruments.
- Conduct stress tests, using electrocardiograph (EKG) machines.
- Set up, operate, or monitor invasive equipment and devices, such as colostomy or tracheotomy equipment, mechanical ventilators, catheters, gastrointestinal tubes, and central lines.
- Perform approved therapeutic or diagnostic procedures, based upon patients' clinical status.
- Insert peripheral or central intravenous catheters.
- Administer hearing tests and examine patients to collect information on type and degree of impairment, using specialized instruments and electronic equipment.
- Conduct electrocardiogram (EKG), phonocardiogram, echocardiogram, or other cardiovascular tests to record patients' cardiac activity, using specialized electronic test equipment, recording devices, or laboratory instruments.
- Treat lower urinary tract dysfunctions using equipment such as diathermy machines, catheters, cystoscopes, or radium emanation tubes.
- Examine gums, using probes, to locate periodontal recessed gums and signs of gum disease.
- Conduct electrocardiogram (EKG), phonocardiogram, echocardiogram, stress testing, or other cardiovascular tests to record patients' cardiac activity, using specialized electronic test equipment, recording devices, or laboratory instruments.
- Connect physiological leads to physiological acquisition control (PAC) units.
- Operate equipment, such as electrocardiograms (EKGs), external defibrillators, or bag valve mask resuscitators, in advanced life support environments.
- Take and record measures of patients' physical condition, using devices such as thermometers or blood pressure gauges.
- Operate, assemble, adjust, or monitor sterilizers, lights, suction machines, or diagnostic equipment to ensure proper operation.
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
26 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Acute Care Nurses
- Athletic Trainers
- Audiologists
- Cardiologists
- Cardiovascular Technologists and Technicians
- Critical Care Nurses
- Dental Hygienists
- Dentists, General
- Exercise Physiologists
- Hearing Aid Specialists
- Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging Technologists
- Neurodiagnostic Technologists
- Nurse Anesthetists
- Ophthalmic Medical Technicians
- Ophthalmic Medical Technologists
- Opticians, Dispensing
- Paramedics
- Physical Therapists
- Psychiatric Technicians
- Radiation Therapists
- Respiratory Therapists
- Speech-Language Pathologists
- Surgical Assistants
- Surgical Technologists
- Urologists
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Operate medical 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.