# Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physicians

> Diagnose and treat disorders requiring physiotherapy to provide physical, mental, and occupational rehabilitation.

- **SOC code:** 29-1229.04
- **Canonical URL:** https://singulariki.com/roles/role-29-1229-04
- **Also known as:** 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
- **Frame:** "AI exposure" means task overlap (how codifiable the work is), not jobs lost or a forecast. Every figure below is traced to a named public dataset.

## What this work is

**Core tasks** (O*NET):
- Document examination results, treatment plans, and patients' outcomes.
- Examine patients to assess mobility, strength, communication, or cognition.
- Assess characteristics of patients' pain, such as intensity, location, or duration, using standardized clinical measures.
- 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.
- Monitor effectiveness of pain management interventions, such as medication or spinal injections.
- 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.
- Coordinate physical medicine and rehabilitation services with other medical activities.
- Prescribe physical therapy to relax the muscles and improve strength.
- Perform electrodiagnosis, including electromyography, nerve conduction studies, or somatosensory evoked potentials of neuromuscular disorders or damage.
- Consult or coordinate with other rehabilitative professionals, including physical and occupational therapists, rehabilitation nurses, speech pathologists, neuropsychologists, behavioral psychologists, social workers, or medical technicians.
- 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.
- Instruct interns and residents in the diagnosis and treatment of temporary or permanent physically disabling conditions.

## Skills, tools, capabilities

**Knowledge, skills & abilities** (O*NET, highest importance first):
- Medicine and Dentistry _(knowledge)_
- Psychology _(knowledge)_
- Biology _(knowledge)_
- Therapy and Counseling _(knowledge)_
- Education and Training _(knowledge)_
- English Language _(knowledge)_
- Customer and Personal Service _(knowledge)_
- Critical Thinking _(essential_skill)_
- Oral Expression _(ability)_
- Problem Sensitivity _(ability)_
- Deductive Reasoning _(ability)_
- Inductive Reasoning _(ability)_

**Skills in demand:**
- Psychology _(Specialized Skill)_
- Biology _(Specialized Skill)_
- English Language _(Common Skill)_
- Inductive Reasoning _(Common Skill)_
- Deductive Reasoning _(Common Skill)_
- Critical Thinking _(Common Skill)_
- Social Perceptiveness _(Common Skill)_
- Reading Comprehension _(Common Skill)_
- Active Listening _(Common Skill)_
- Information Ordering _(Specialized Skill)_
- Writing _(Common Skill)_
- Speech Recognition _(Specialized Skill)_

**Tools & technology:**
- eClinicalWorks EHR software _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Word _(hot technology)_
- Allscripts PM
- athenahealth athenaCollector
- Automatic Data Processing AdvancedMD EHR
- Benchmark Systems Benchmark Clinical EHR
- Biodex Medical Systems Biodex Concussion Manager
- Bizmatics PrognoCIS EMR
- CareCloud Central
- Cerner PowerWorks Practice Management
- Email software
- Epic Practice Management

## AI exposure & outlook

- **AI task-overlap index:** 36th percentile (Moderate) across all occupations — composite of current-era exposure studies (ai-exposure-index-v1).
- **LLM task exposure, γ (OpenAI / Eloundou):** 42nd percentile (Moderate) — source: eloundou_gamma.
- **AI assistant applicability (Microsoft):** 35th percentile (Moderate) — source: microsoft_applicability.
- **Projected employment (BLS 2024–34):** 2.5% growth (About average); 9.6k annual openings; 340.7k → 349.3k jobs.
- **Pay & employment (BLS OEWS, May 2024):** median —; 315,360 employed.

## Sources

- **O*NET** (30.3) — U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS)** (May 2024) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS Employment Projections** (2024–2034) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **Anthropic Economic Index** (v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27)) — Anthropic. https://www.anthropic.com/economic-index
- **Microsoft “Working with AI”** (working-with-ai) — Microsoft Research. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/
- **“GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.)** (arXiv 2303.10130) — OpenAI / academic. https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.10130

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_Generated from Singulariki's joined dataset; data snapshot 2026-06-02T21:00:32.945303+00:00. https://singulariki.com/roles/role-29-1229-04_