Prescribe medications
Part of the output can be produced by software today.
An agent can propose the plan, chase the replies and keep the record current. To actually change anything it needs write access to a calendar or work system, and a person still owns the tradeoffs when two plans collide.
| How automatable | Partly automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Scheduling, planning and resource control |
| Jobs that do it | 32 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | Tools and auth, Builders |
| O*NET activity | Monitoring and Controlling Resources (4.A.4.c.3) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 32 occupations that perform it.
- Write prescriptions for antibiotics or other medications.
- Prescribe medications to treat eye diseases if state laws permit.
- Work in hospitals or clinics or for Health Management Organizations (HMOs), dispensing prescriptions, serving as a medical team consultant, or specializing in specific drug therapy areas, such as oncology or nuclear pharmacotherapy.
- Prescribe therapy or medication with physician approval.
- Prescribe medications, corrective devices, physical therapy, or surgery.
- Treat sick or injured animals by prescribing medication, setting bones, dressing wounds, or performing surgery.
- Prescribe or recommend drugs, medical devices, or other forms of treatment, such as physical therapy, inhalation therapy, or related therapeutic procedures.
- Prescribe medications and observe patients' reactions, modifying prescriptions as needed.
- Write prescriptions for psychotropic medications as allowed by state regulations and collaborative practice agreements.
- Provide direct care by performing comprehensive health assessments, developing differential diagnoses, conducting specialized tests, or prescribing medications or treatments.
- Select and prescribe post-anesthesia medications or treatments to patients.
- Prescribe medications as permitted by state regulations.
- Prescribe medications based on efficacy, safety, and cost as legally authorized.
- Provide medical care and consultation in many settings, prescribing medication and treatment and referring patients for surgery.
- Prescribe heart medication to treat or prevent heart problems.
- Prescribe hormonal agents or topical treatments such as contraceptives, spironolactone, antiandrogens, oral corticosteroids, retinoids, benzoyl peroxide, or antibiotics.
- Select and prescribe medications to address patient needs.
- Prescribe or administer treatment, therapy, medication, vaccination, and other specialized medical care to treat or prevent illness, disease, or injury.
What we would actually use
One recommendation rather than a shortlist, because a shortlist is just your problem handed back. This is what we would buy for scheduling, planning and resource control, and what it costs.
Scheduling is a connector problem rather than an intelligence one, and $9 a month of Make covers both the calendar and the chasing. An agent platform priced per seat adds nothing you would notice here.
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.
The rest of the category
Context, not alternatives to weigh up. We name the layer rather than promise a named product does your specific task.
Matched from the kind of work, not from vendor marketing. Check any of them can reach the system your records actually live in — that connection, not the model, is where these projects stall.
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
32 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Acute Care Nurses
- Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurses
- Allergists and Immunologists
- Anesthesiologists
- Cardiologists
- Clinical Nurse Specialists
- Dentists, General
- Dermatologists
- Emergency Medicine Physicians
- Family Medicine Physicians
- General Internal Medicine Physicians
- Hospitalists
- Naturopathic Physicians
- Neurologists
- Nurse Anesthetists
- Nurse Midwives
- Nurse Practitioners
- Obstetricians and Gynecologists
- Ophthalmologists, Except Pediatric
- Optometrists
- Orthopedic Surgeons, Except Pediatric
- Pediatric Surgeons
- Pediatricians, General
- Pharmacists
- Physician Assistants
- Podiatrists
- Psychiatrists
- Radiologists
- Registered Nurses
- Sports Medicine Physicians
- Urologists
- Veterinarians
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Prescribe medical treatments or devices”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
| Activity | Jobs |
|---|---|
| Prescribe treatments or therapies | 19 |
| Prescribe assistive medical devices or related treatments | 6 |
| Control prescription refills or authorizations | 3 |
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.