Skills it runs on
The capabilities O*NET rates most important for this occupation — the human ground the work is built on.
See all skills →Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physicians
Occupation · SOC 29-1229.04
Diagnose and treat disorders requiring physiotherapy to provide physical, mental, and occupational rehabilitation.
Also called: MD (Medical Doctor) · Pain Management Physician · Physiatrist · Physician · Medical Director Acute Rehabilitation Unit Physiatrist · Pediatric Physiatrist · Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physician (PM and R Physician) · Rehabilitation Physician · DO Physician (Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine Physician) · Hospitalist Physician · Interventional Pain Physician · Interventional Physiatrist
Job family: Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations
Take this to your AI
A source-stamped Markdown brief of this occupation — paste it into an agent, or fetch
/roles/role-29-1229-04/context.md directly.
AI work map
A fast read on where AI already shows up in this occupation, where it stays a copilot, where humans remain in the loop, and what the labor market is doing. Built from observed Claude.ai conversations mapped to O*NET tasks and from published research — measures of usage and exposure, not advice or predictions that the job is going away.
Market signal
Independent published positions, read together — not a forecast.
- About average employment outlook (+2.5% by 2034)
- 9,600 openings/yr
- Moderate AI exposure
36th-percentile task overlap — yet about 9,600 openings a year (+2.5% projected, BLS) . What exposure means →
AI & job outlook
What today's research says about this occupation's exposure to AI, how AI is actually being used in it, and where employment is headed. These are positions within published studies — measures of exposure and usage, not predictions that this job will disappear.
Exposure to current AI
Each study uses its own scale, so the raw scores are not comparable across rows — the percentile (this job's rank among all U.S. occupations with data) is the comparable figure, and sizes the bars.
| Measure | Rank vs all occupations | Percentile | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| LLM task exposure, γ (OpenAI / Eloundou) Moderate | 42nd | 0.5 | |
| AI assistant applicability (Microsoft) Moderate | 35th | 0.1 |
OpenAI's exposure study scores tasks three ways: with a language model alone (α 0.1), with simple added tooling (β 0.3), and including AI-powered software (γ 0.5). Higher means more of the job's tasks could be done at least twice as fast — not that they will be automated away.
How AI is actually used in this job
Among measured AI assistant conversations mapped to this occupation (Anthropic Economic Index, 2026-01-15), these task types came up most. These are shares of observed AI conversations — not shares of the job, of worker time, or of what could be automated.
| Document examination results, treatment plans, and patients' outcomes. | 1.0% |
Job outlook
Independent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics employment projection for 2024–2034 — a labor-market forecast, not an AI-impact forecast.
| Outlook | About average · +2.5% by 2034 |
| Projected annual openings | 9,600 |
| Employment 2024 → 2034 | 340,700 → 349,300 |
“Annual openings” counts new jobs plus replacements for workers who leave the occupation, so it can be large even when growth is modest.
Tasks
All 15 tasks O*NET lists for this occupation, ordered by importance. Each links to its own page with AI-exposure and observed-use detail.
- Document examination results, treatment plans, and patients' outcomes. Core · importance 4.7
- Examine patients to assess mobility, strength, communication, or cognition. Core · importance 4.7
- Assess characteristics of patients' pain, such as intensity, location, or duration, using standardized clinical measures. Core · importance 4.6
- Provide inpatient or outpatient medical management of neuromuscular disorders, musculoskeletal trauma, acute and chronic pain, deformity or amputation, cardiac or pulmonary disease, or other disabling conditions. Core · importance 4.6
- Monitor effectiveness of pain management interventions, such as medication or spinal injections. Core · importance 4.5
- Develop comprehensive plans for immediate and long-term rehabilitation, including therapeutic exercise, speech and occupational therapy, counseling, cognitive retraining, patient, family or caregiver education, or community reintegration. Core · importance 4.5
- Coordinate physical medicine and rehabilitation services with other medical activities. Core · importance 4.4
- Perform electrodiagnosis, including electromyography, nerve conduction studies, or somatosensory evoked potentials of neuromuscular disorders or damage. Core · importance 4.3
- Prescribe physical therapy to relax the muscles and improve strength. Core · importance 4.3
- Consult or coordinate with other rehabilitative professionals, including physical and occupational therapists, rehabilitation nurses, speech pathologists, neuropsychologists, behavioral psychologists, social workers, or medical technicians. Core · importance 4.3
- Prescribe therapy services, such as electrotherapy, ultrasonography, heat or cold therapy, hydrotherapy, debridement, short-wave or microwave diathermy, and infrared or ultraviolet radiation, to enhance rehabilitation. Core · importance 4.2
- Instruct interns and residents in the diagnosis and treatment of temporary or permanent physically disabling conditions. Core · importance 4.2
- Diagnose or treat performance-related conditions, such as sports injuries or repetitive-motion injuries. Core · importance 4.1
- Prescribe orthotic and prosthetic applications and adaptive equipment, such as wheelchairs, bracing, or communication devices, to maximize patient function and self-sufficiency. Core · importance 3.9
- Conduct physical tests, such as functional capacity evaluations, to determine injured workers' capabilities to perform the physical demands of their jobs. Core · importance 3.8
Work activities
- Train medical providers.
- Examine patients to assess general physical condition.
- Monitor patient conditions during treatments, procedures, or activities.
- Assess physical conditions of patients to aid in diagnosis or treatment.
- Monitor patient progress or responses to treatments.
- Record patient medical histories.
- Diagnose medical conditions.
- Treat acute illnesses, infections, or injuries.
- Develop treatment plans that use non-medical therapies.
- Prescribe treatments or therapies.
- Collaborate with healthcare professionals to plan or provide treatment.
- Test patient nervous system functioning.
- Prescribe assistive medical devices or related treatments.
- Treat chronic diseases or disorders.
Knowledge, skills & abilities
O*NET importance rating, from 1 (not important) to 5 (extremely important).
Knowledge
Essential skills
| Critical Thinking | 4.1 | |
| Reading Comprehension | 4.0 | |
| Active Listening | 4.0 | |
| Speaking | 4.0 | |
| Writing | 3.8 | |
| Monitoring | 3.8 | |
| Active Learning | 3.6 |
Abilities
| Oral Expression | 4.1 | |
| Problem Sensitivity | 4.1 | |
| Deductive Reasoning | 4.1 | |
| Inductive Reasoning | 4.1 | |
| Oral Comprehension | 4.0 | |
| Written Comprehension | 4.0 | |
| Written Expression | 3.9 | |
| Information Ordering | 3.9 | |
| Category Flexibility | 3.8 | |
| Near Vision | 3.8 | |
| Speech Recognition | 3.8 | |
| Speech Clarity | 3.8 | |
| Fluency of Ideas | 3.5 | |
| Originality | 3.4 |
Transferable skills
| Social Perceptiveness | 4.0 | |
| Judgment and Decision Making | 3.9 | |
| Coordination | 3.8 | |
| Complex Problem Solving | 3.8 | |
| Instructing | 3.6 | |
| Service Orientation | 3.6 | |
| Time Management | 3.5 |
Skills in demand
Skills employers ask for in job postings for this occupation (Lightcast), with whether each is a common or specialized skill.
Tools & technology
Work context
How characteristic each condition is of the job, on O*NET's 1–5 context scale (higher = more present in day-to-day work). Each condition links to how it varies across all occupations.
How to get in
- Job zone
- Zone 5 — Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed
- Education
- Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).
- Typical entry-level education
- Doctoral or professional degree · BLS, the typical path — not a requirement
- Related experience
- Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.
- Preparation level
- SVP (8.0 and above) — total schooling plus on-the-job experience.
What to study: Health Professions and Related Programs , Medical Residency/Fellowship Programs . Fields of study crosswalked to this occupation (NCES CIP–SOC), not a requirement.
Education of current workers
Share of people in this occupation at each level of education.
| Doctoral Degree | 54.9% | |
| Post-Doctoral Training | 43.0% | |
| First Professional Degree | 1.3% | |
| Bachelor's Degree | 0.8% |
Interests & work styles
The interests and personal qualities O*NET associates with people who do this work.
Work styles
| Intellectual Curiosity | 10.0 | |
| Cooperation | 9.0 | |
| Achievement Orientation | 8.0 | |
| Social Orientation | 7.0 | |
| Self-Control | 6.0 | |
| Stress Tolerance | 5.0 | |
| Empathy | 4.0 |
Interest areas
| Health Care Service | 6.7 | |
| Medical Science | 5.3 | |
| Social Service | 4.7 | |
| Life Science | 4.4 | |
| Teaching/Education | 3.6 | |
| Professional Advising | 3.5 |
Career interests (Holland / RIASEC)
| Investigative | 6.3 | |
| Social | 6.0 | |
| Realistic | 4.9 |
Wages & employment
U.S. · annual wages (BLS OEWS)
| 10th percentile | $66,860 |
| 25th percentile | $95,080 |
| Median (50th) | — |
| 75th percentile | — |
| 90th percentile | — |
| People employed | 315,360 |
Wages and employment are reported by BLS for the broader occupation group this specialty belongs to (SOC 29-1229), not for the specialty alone.
Industries that employ this occupation
Where these workers are employed, by number of jobs (national, BLS OEWS). Pay shown is the occupation's national median, not industry-specific.
| Industry | Workers | National median pay |
|---|---|---|
| Health Care and Social Assistance · Sector | 258,240 | $235,660 |
| Educational Services · Sector | 10,850 | $72,170 |
| Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services · Sector | 2,280 | $221,680 |
| Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services · Sector | 1,670 | — |
| Management of Companies and Enterprises · Sector | 1,330 | — |
| Offices of Physical, Occupational and Speech Therapists, and Audiologists · National industry | 920 | — |
| Finance and Insurance · Sector | 770 | $227,720 |
| Direct Health and Medical Insurance Carriers · National industry | 510 | $227,720 |
| Outpatient Mental Health and Substance Abuse Centers · National industry | 480 | — |
| Temporary Help Services · National industry | 300 | — |
| Manufacturing · Sector | 220 | $88,370 |
| Residential Mental Health and Substance Abuse Facilities · National industry | 220 | — |
Where this work is most concentrated
Industries where this occupation is far more common than in the economy as a whole. The location quotient is how many times more concentrated it is here (a value of 5 means five times its economy-wide share).
| Industry | Concentration | Workers |
|---|---|---|
| Health Care and Social Assistance · Sector | 5.46× | 258,240 |
| Offices of Physical, Occupational and Speech Therapists, and Audiologists · National industry | 0.94× | 920 |
| Outpatient Mental Health and Substance Abuse Centers · National industry | 0.76× | 480 |
| Direct Health and Medical Insurance Carriers · National industry | 0.56× | 510 |
| Offices of Chiropractors · National industry | 0.47× | 140 |
| Residential Mental Health and Substance Abuse Facilities · National industry | 0.42× | 220 |
| Educational Services · Sector | 0.39× | 10,850 |
| Management of Companies and Enterprises · Sector | 0.23× | 1,330 |
Related occupations
Part of the Healthcare & Human Services career cluster.
- Orthopedic Surgeons, Except Pediatric · 29-1242.00 Compare →
- Pediatric Surgeons · 29-1243.00 Compare →
- Cardiologists · 29-1212.00 Compare →
- Emergency Medicine Physicians · 29-1214.00 Compare →
- General Internal Medicine Physicians · 29-1216.00 Compare →
- Neurologists · 29-1217.00 Compare →
- Physical Therapists · 29-1123.00 Compare →
- Urologists · 29-1229.03 Compare →
- Nurse Practitioners · 29-1171.00 Compare →
- Occupational Therapists · 29-1122.00 Compare →
- Anesthesiologists · 29-1211.00 Compare →
- Physical Therapist Assistants · 31-2021.00 Compare →
Side-by-side comparisons place two occupations’ pay, preparation, skills, and AI exposure on the same page — same data, same scale, no forecast.
What you can do with this
Options the data surfaces for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physicians — not advice or a forecast. Each is a real cross-link you can follow into the evidence.
Skills that travel
Capabilities this work builds that are used across many other occupations.
Adjacent roles
Occupations O*NET rates as related — the nearby moves on the map.
Paths in
How people typically prepare for this work.
- Doctoral or professional degree · typical entry level
- Job zone 5 — Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed · preparation tier
- Health Professions and Related Programs · field of study
- Medical Residency/Fellowship Programs · field of study
Zoom out
See where this work sits in the bigger picture.
Write a report on thisheadline · factoids · citation
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physicians show 36th-percentile AI task overlap — and about 9,600 annual U.S. openings
- Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physicians rank in the 36th percentile (Moderate band) for AI task overlap across U.S. occupations — a measure of how much of the work today's AI can attempt, not how much is automated.Eloundou et al. (GPTs are GPTs) + Felten AIOE
- The occupation is projected to see about 9,600 U.S. job openings per year (2024–34), counting growth and replacement — a labor-demand projection made independently of AI.BLS Employment Projections 2024–34
- BLS projects employment to be about average (+2.5%) from 2024 to 2034.BLS Employment Projections 2024–34
Copy the whole kit
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physicians show 36th-percentile AI task overlap — and about 9,600 annual U.S. openings • Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physicians rank in the 36th percentile (Moderate band) for AI task overlap across U.S. occupations — a measure of how much of the work today's AI can attempt, not how much is automated. (Eloundou et al. (GPTs are GPTs) + Felten AIOE) • The occupation is projected to see about 9,600 U.S. job openings per year (2024–34), counting growth and replacement — a labor-demand projection made independently of AI. (BLS Employment Projections 2024–34) • BLS projects employment to be about average (+2.5%) from 2024 to 2034. (BLS Employment Projections 2024–34) Source: Singulariki — "Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physicians". https://singulariki.com/roles/role-29-1229-04 Note: AI task overlap measures what today's AI can attempt, not automation, job loss, or a forecast.
AssetsShare imageMethodology & sourcesPress & newsroomThe newsroom
Every line is built only from figures this page already shows and cites. AI task overlap means what today's AI can attempt — not automation, job loss, or a forecast.
Sources for this page
Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.
- O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27) Anthropic
- Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai Microsoft Research
- “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic
Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.
Cite this page
Plain
Singulariki. "Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physicians." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/roles/role-29-1229-04
APA
Singulariki. (2026). Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physicians. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/roles/role-29-1229-04
BibTeX
@misc{singulariki-role-29-1229-04,
title = {Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physicians},
author = {{Singulariki}},
year = {2026},
note = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
url = {https://singulariki.com/roles/role-29-1229-04}
} Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.