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Professionals · code 2212

Specialist medical practitioners

Specialist medical practitioners (medical doctors) diagnose, treat and prevent illness, disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments in humans, using specialized testing, diagnostic, medical, surgical, physical and psychiatric techniques through application of the principles and procedures of modern medicine. They specialize in certain disease categories, types of patient or methods of treatment and may conduct medical education and research in their chosen areas of specialization. Tasks include - (a) conducting physical examinations of patients and interviewing them and their families to determine their health status; (b) considering medical information provided by a referring doctor or other health care provider, (c) ordering specialized diagnostic tests to determine the nature of disorders or illnesses; (d) prescribing, administering and monitoring patients’ responses to treatments, medications, anaesthetics, psychotherapies, physical rehabilitation programmes and other preventive and curative measures; (e) performing surgery of a general or specialized nature; (f) managing complications before, during and after childbirth; (g) recording patients’ medical information and exchanging information with other health professionals to ensure the provision of comprehensive care; (h) reporting births, deaths and notifiable diseases to government authorities to meet legal and professional requirements; (i) providing information to patients and families and communities about preventive measures, treatment and care for specific ailments; (j) performing autopsies to determine cause of death; (k) conducting research into specific human disorders and illnesses and preventive or curative methods and disseminating the findings such as through scientific reports; (l) planning and participating in programmes designed to prevent the occurrence and spread of specific diseases. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Anaesthetist - Cardiologist - Emergency medicine specialist - Gynaecologist - Obstetrician - Ophthalmologist - Paediatrician - Pathologist - Preventive medicine specialist - Psychiatrist - Radiation oncologist - Radiologist - Resident medical officer in specialist training - Specialist medical practitioner (public health) - Specialist physician (internal medicine) - Specialist physician (nuclear medicine) - Surgeon Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Biomedical researcher - 2131 - General practitioner - 2211 - Resident medical officer specializing in general practice - 2211 - Dental practitioner - 2261 - Dental surgeon - 2261 - Oral and maxillofacial surgeon - 2261 - Clinical psychologist - 2634 Notes Occupations included in this unit group require completion of a university-level degree in basic medical education plus postgraduate clinical training in a medical specialization (except general practice) or equivalent. Resident medical officers and interns training as specialist practitioners (except general practice) are included here. Although in some countries 'stomatology' may be considered as a medical specialization, stomatologists should be included in Unit group -2261, Dentists. Medical research professionals who participate in biomedical research using living organisms and do not undertake clinical practice are classified in Unit Group 2131: Biologists, Botanists, Zoologists and Related Professionals.

None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 214 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • specialised doctor

Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.

72.9
Holds up
against AI Not Exposed

AI could take on 27.1 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 27.1 = 72.9

That's the whole sum, and you can check it against the ILO's study.

38.2
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, averaged across 15 US jobs , so treat it as rough

33.7
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 40.6 · hand skill 33.3 · cramped spaces 27.1 · averaged

Kind of hands-on work · hands-on under 50 Less than half hands-on

Less than half of this job is hands-on. Robots still matter, but for a smaller part of the work, so we don't sort it any further.

estimated O*NET 31.0 BLS occupational crosswalk chain ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC (Aug 2012, rev. Jun 2015); 2010 to 2018 SOC (Nov 2017); O*NET-SOC 2019 taxonomy data 0.7-work-setting measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

What this number leaves out This job rates 38.2 out of 100 for how hands-on it is. The score above only looks at AI tools, not robots, but for work this far from the physical that matters less.

The tasks behind the score

The score is the average of these. A job is really a bundle of tasks, and an average can hide how uneven that bundle is.

The task AI could do most of scores 43, while the average is 27.1. A big gap means some of this job is wide open to AI and some of it barely at all. That's quite different from a job where everything sits somewhere in the middle, even when the averages match.

  1. 43

    Providing information to patients and families and communities about preventive measures, treatment and care for specific ailments

    Low
  2. 38.8

    Conducting research into specific human disorders and illnesses and preventive or curative methods and disseminating the findings such as through scientific reports

    Low
  3. 37.5

    Reporting births, deaths and notifiable diseases to government authorities to meet legal and professional requirements

    Low
  4. 36.5

    Recording patients' medical information and exchanging information with other health professionals to ensure the provision of comprehensive care

    Low
  5. 35

    Planning and participating in programmes designed to prevent the occurrence and spread of specific diseases.

    Low
  6. 33.5

    Considering medical information provided by a referring doctor or other health care provider

    Low
  7. 28.5

    Ordering specialized diagnostic tests to determine the nature of disorders or illnesses

    Low
  8. 18

    Prescribing, administering and monitoring patients' responses to treatments, medications, anaesthetics, psychotherapies, physical rehabilitation programmes and other preventive and curative measures

    Very Low
  9. 16.5

    Conducting physical examinations of patients and interviewing them and their families to determine their health status

    Very Low
  10. 15.5

    Performing autopsies to determine cause of death

    Very Low
  11. 12.3

    Performing surgery of a general or specialized nature

    Very Low
  12. 10.8

    Managing complications before, during and after childbirth

    Very Low

12 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.7-work-setting

Helped, or replaced?

The score above can't tell a tool that makes you faster from one that does the task instead of you. Jobs and Skills Australia looked at those two things separately, and this is their result, matched to this job.

5 Australian jobs match this one, and we've simply averaged them. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.

AI helps you
65.6
AI does it for you
24.6

Helping wins by 41 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 2532, 2533, 2534, 2535, 2539

Compared with similar jobs

There are 92 jobs in the “Professionals” group, averaging 61.2. This one is above that.