Refer patients to ophthalmic surgeons or other physicians.

“Refer patients to ophthalmic surgeons or other physicians.” is a core task performed by Orthoptists. Among the occupation's 16 rated tasks, workers place it 7th by importance (#10 most important). About 79% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Assist others to access additional services or resources. in Assisting and Caring for Others

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E2. Exposure with tools — software built on top of a language model (not the model alone) could cut the time by at least half.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 0.50. Automation potential label: T1.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Examine patients with problems related to ocular motility, binocular vision, amblyopia, or strabismus. · importance 5.0
• Evaluate, diagnose, or treat disorders of the visual system with an emphasis on binocular vision or abnormal eye movements. · importance 5.0
• Provide instructions to patients or family members concerning diagnoses or treatment plans. · importance 5.0
• Perform diagnostic tests or measurements, such as motor testing, visual acuity testing, lensometry, retinoscopy, and color vision testing. · importance 4.9
• Provide nonsurgical interventions, including corrective lenses, patches, drops, fusion exercises, or stereograms, to treat conditions such as strabismus, heterophoria, and convergence insufficiency. · importance 4.9
• Develop nonsurgical treatment plans for patients with conditions such as strabismus, nystagmus, and other visual disorders. · importance 4.8
• Interpret clinical or diagnostic test results. · importance 4.7
• Develop or use special test and communication techniques to facilitate diagnosis and treatment of children or disabled patients. · importance 4.6
• Provide training related to clinical methods or orthoptics to students, resident physicians, or other health professionals. · importance 4.2
• Prepare diagnostic or treatment reports for other medical practitioners or therapists. · importance 4.0
• Collaborate with ophthalmologists, optometrists, or other specialists in the diagnosis, treatment, or management of conditions such as glaucoma, cataracts, and retinal diseases. · importance 3.9
• Present or publish scientific papers. · importance 3.5
• Perform vision screening of children in schools or community health centers. · importance 3.5
• Participate in clinical research projects. · importance 3.3

See all tasks on the Orthoptists page.

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
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-task-18433,
  title  = {Refer patients to ophthalmic surgeons or other physicians.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-18433}
}