# Medical Assistants

> Perform administrative and certain clinical duties under the direction of a physician. Administrative duties may include scheduling appointments, maintaining medical records, billing, and coding information for insurance purposes. Clinical duties may include taking and recording vital signs and medical histories, preparing patients for examination, drawing blood, and administering medications as directed by physician.

- **SOC code:** 31-9092.00
- **Canonical URL:** https://singulariki.com/roles/role-31-9092-00
- **Also known as:** Certified Medical Assistant (CMA), Chiropractor Assistant, Doctor's Assistant, Registered Medical Assistant (RMA), Clinical Medical Assistant, Health Assistant, Ophthalmic Assistant, Ophthalmological Assistant
- **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):
- Interview patients to obtain medical information and measure their vital signs, weight, and height.
- Clean and sterilize instruments and dispose of contaminated supplies.
- Record patients' medical history, vital statistics, or information such as test results in medical records.
- Explain treatment procedures, medications, diets, or physicians' instructions to patients.
- Prepare treatment rooms for patient examinations, keeping the rooms neat and clean.
- Collect blood, tissue, or other laboratory specimens, log the specimens, and prepare them for testing.
- Show patients to examination rooms and prepare them for the physician.
- Help physicians examine and treat patients, handing them instruments or materials or performing such tasks as giving injections or removing sutures.
- Perform routine laboratory tests and sample analyses.
- Greet and log in patients arriving at office or clinic.
- Perform general office duties, such as answering telephones, taking dictation, or completing insurance forms.
- Prepare and administer medications as directed by a physician.

## Skills, tools, capabilities

**Knowledge, skills & abilities** (O*NET, highest importance first):
- English Language _(knowledge)_
- Customer and Personal Service _(knowledge)_
- Medicine and Dentistry _(knowledge)_
- Administrative _(knowledge)_
- Social Perceptiveness _(transferable_skill)_
- Oral Comprehension _(ability)_
- Written Comprehension _(ability)_
- Oral Expression _(ability)_
- Active Listening _(essential_skill)_
- Speaking _(essential_skill)_
- Problem Sensitivity _(ability)_
- Near Vision _(ability)_

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

**Tools & technology:**
- Epic Systems _(hot technology, in demand)_
- Microsoft Office software _(hot technology, in demand)_
- eClinicalWorks EHR software _(hot technology)_
- Intuit QuickBooks _(hot technology)_
- MEDITECH software _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Access _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Excel _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Outlook _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft PowerPoint _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft SharePoint _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Word _(hot technology)_
- Appointment scheduling software

## AI exposure & outlook

- **AI task-overlap index:** 37th percentile (Moderate) across all occupations — composite of current-era exposure studies (ai-exposure-index-v1).
- **Overall AI exposure (Felten et al.):** 52nd percentile (Moderate) — source: felten_aioe.
- **LLM task exposure, γ (OpenAI / Eloundou):** 46th percentile (Moderate) — source: eloundou_gamma.
- **AI assistant applicability (Microsoft):** 18th percentile (Low) — source: microsoft_applicability.
- **Frey–Osborne (2013, historical computerization estimate):** 39th percentile — kept separate from current-era studies.
- **Remote-capable (Dingel–Neiman):** no — task structure, not who actually works remote.
- **Projected employment (BLS 2024–34):** 12.5% growth (Growing fast); 112.3k annual openings; 811k → 912.2k jobs.
- **Pay & employment (BLS OEWS, May 2024):** median $44,200; 793,460 employed.

## How people actually use AI here

Anthropic Economic Index — measured AI conversations mapped to this occupation's tasks:

- **Automation vs augmentation:** 21% automation, 61% augmentation (usage-weighted).
- **Autonomy median:** 3.0 (higher = AI acts more independently).
- **Dominant collaboration mode:** learning.

**Tasks most handed to AI here:**
- Explain treatment procedures, medications, diets, or physicians' instructions to patients. _(2.3% of measured AI use; learning)_
- Change dressings on wounds. _(0.4% of measured AI use; learning)_
- Schedule appointments for patients. _(0.3% of measured AI use; directive)_

**Example prompts (honest phrasings of the tasks above — starting points, not endorsed instructions):**
- Help me explain treatment procedures, medications, diets, or physicians' instructions to patients.
- Help me change dressings on wounds.
- Help me schedule appointments for patients.

## 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
- **AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE)** (Felten, Raj & Seamans) — academic. https://github.com/AIOE-Data/AIOE
- **Frey & Osborne (2013)** (frey-osborne-automation) — academic. https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/publications/the-future-of-employment/
- **Dingel & Neiman (2020)** (dingel-neiman-workathome) — academic. https://github.com/jdingel/DingelNeiman-workathome

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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-31-9092-00_