AI exposure: Medical Equipment Repairers
Test, adjust, or repair biomedical or electromedical equipment.
Reading this score
computedAt 26.2% of weighted task load, Medical Equipment Repairers sits at the 48th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 60.1% of what this role does is untouched, meaning current systems cannot produce that work at all, whatever the commercial incentive.
What holds the line here is embodiment. Across this occupation's 20 tasks it averages 1.73 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, the work has to happen in physical space. A language model cannot move matter. Until the robotics to do this work is both good enough and cheap enough to deploy widely, capability in software does not reach it.
The most exposed thing this job does is Research catalogs or repair part lists to locate sources for repair parts, requisitioning parts..., at 80.0%. The least is Fabricate, dress down, or substitute parts or major new items to modify equipment to meet..., at 0.0%. A gap of 80.0% between two parts of the same job is the reason this index publishes at task level. An occupation-wide number would have hidden both.
Within installation, maintenance and repair occupations, this one is more exposed than most. The median across the 50 roles in the group is 12.8%, and only 3 of them score higher than this. Occupational families are not uniform, and the spread inside them is often wider than the gap between them.
What would move this score. Of 20 tasks, 9 are currently banded exposed, 0 assisted and 11 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take robotics cheap and reliable enough to deploy at scale, not a better language model. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Where the score comes from
judgedEvery task is scored through the standardised work activities it maps to. These are this occupation’s averages on the six rubric dimensions. Capability is what AI can do; the other five are what stands in the way.
| Dimension | Mean | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | 1.64 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 1.73 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.54 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.97 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.49 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.24 | 0-3 |
Task by task
20 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Research catalogs or repair part lists to locate sources for repair parts, requisitioning parts and recording their receipt. | 80.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 3.85 | exposed |
| Keep records of maintenance, repair, and required updates of equipment. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 4.41 | exposed |
| Study technical manuals or attend training sessions provided by equipment manufacturers to maintain current knowledge. | 55.0% | 20.0% | 25.0% | 3.97 | exposed |
| Compute power and space requirements for installing medical, dental, or related equipment and install units to manufacturers' specifications. | 55.0% | 20.0% | 25.0% | 3.66 | exposed |
| Evaluate technical specifications to identify equipment or systems best suited for intended use and possible purchase, based on specifications, user needs, or technical requirements. | 55.0% | 20.0% | 25.0% | 3.50 | exposed |
| Make computations relating to load requirements of wiring or equipment, using algebraic expressions and standard formulas. | 55.0% | 20.0% | 25.0% | 3.34 | exposed |
| Contribute expertise to develop medical maintenance standard operating procedures. | 40.0% | 35.0% | 25.0% | 3.59 | exposed |
| Plan and carry out work assignments, using blueprints, schematic drawings, technical manuals, wiring diagrams, or liquid or air flow sheets, following prescribed regulations, directives, or other instructions as required. | 37.5% | 25.0% | 37.5% | 4.07 | exposed |
| Explain or demonstrate correct operation or preventive maintenance of medical equipment to personnel. | 26.7% | 23.3% | 50.0% | 3.96 | exposed |
| Test, evaluate, and classify excess or in-use medical equipment and determine serviceability, condition, and disposition, in accordance with regulations. | 15.0% | 10.0% | 75.0% | 4.12 | untouched |
| Test or calibrate components or equipment, following manufacturers' manuals and troubleshooting techniques, using hand tools, power tools, or measuring devices. | 13.3% | 11.7% | 75.0% | 4.62 | untouched |
| Supervise or advise subordinate personnel. | 13.3% | 11.7% | 75.0% | 3.44 | untouched |
| Inspect, test, or troubleshoot malfunctioning medical or related equipment, following manufacturers' specifications and using test and analysis instruments. | 10.0% | 15.0% | 75.0% | 4.55 | untouched |
| Examine medical equipment or facility's structural environment and check for proper use of equipment to protect patients and staff from electrical or mechanical hazards and to ensure compliance with safety regulations. | 6.7% | 18.3% | 75.0% | 4.24 | untouched |
| Perform preventive maintenance or service, such as cleaning, lubricating, or adjusting equipment. | 5.2% | 3.1% | 91.7% | 4.55 | untouched |
| Disassemble malfunctioning equipment and remove, repair, or replace defective parts, such as motors, clutches, or transformers. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.39 | untouched |
| Install medical equipment. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.14 | untouched |
| Repair shop equipment, metal furniture, or hospital equipment, including welding broken parts or replacing missing parts, or bring item into local shop for major repairs. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.79 | untouched |
| Solder loose connections, using soldering iron. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.75 | untouched |
| Fabricate, dress down, or substitute parts or major new items to modify equipment to meet unique operational or research needs, working from job orders, sketches, modification orders, samples, or discussions with operating officials. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.53 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.
Occupations either side of this one
The four closest scores in the same occupational family, then the four closest anywhere in the index.
Read this carefully. Exposure is not displacement. A high score means current AI systems can produce this work, not that anyone will stop paying a person to do it. Adoption depends on economics, regulation and inertia that this index deliberately does not model. How the score is built.
What this means in practice
Most of this work is not reachable by current systems, so the immediate pressure is on the administrative edges of the role rather than its core: the scheduling, the reporting, the written records. That is where time is recovered.