AI exposure: Radiation Therapists
Provide radiation therapy to patients as prescribed by a radiation oncologist according to established practices and standards. Duties may include reviewing prescription and diagnosis; acting as liaison with physician and supportive care personnel; preparing equipment, such as immobilization, treatment, and protection devices; and maintaining records, reports, and files. May assist in dosimetry procedures and tumor localization.
Reading this score
computedAt 19.2% of weighted task load, Radiation Therapists sits at the 33th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 60.2% 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 verification cost. Across this occupation's 22 tasks it averages 2.45 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, checking the output costs more than producing it. Where an undetected error is expensive, dangerous or irreversible, the economics change. Someone has to verify the work, and verifying can cost as much as doing it. This is the friction most likely to fall as tools for checking improve.
The most exposed thing this job does is Schedule patients for treatment times, at 73.3%. The least is Assist in the preparation of sealed radioactive materials, at 0.0%. A gap of 73.3% 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 healthcare practitioner and technical occupations, this one is more exposed than most. The median across the 89 roles in the group is 18.4%, and only 41 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 22 tasks, 4 are currently banded exposed, 5 assisted and 13 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 | 1.50 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 1.80 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 1.64 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 2.36 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.61 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 2.45 | 0-3 |
Task by task
22 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Schedule patients for treatment times. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 4.16 | exposed |
| Review prescription, diagnosis, patient chart, and identification. | 60.0% | 40.0% | 0.0% | 4.82 | exposed |
| Maintain records, reports, or files as required, including such information as radiation dosages, equipment settings, or patients' reactions. | 60.0% | 40.0% | 0.0% | 4.63 | exposed |
| Calculate actual treatment dosages delivered during each session. | 60.0% | 40.0% | 0.0% | 4.46 | exposed |
| Help physicians, radiation oncologists, or clinical physicists to prepare physical or technical aspects of radiation treatment plans, using information about patient condition and anatomy. | 30.0% | 45.0% | 25.0% | 4.48 | assisted |
| Enter data into computer and set controls to operate or adjust equipment or regulate dosage. | 25.0% | 25.0% | 50.0% | 4.78 | assisted |
| Act as liaison with physicist and supportive care personnel. | 25.0% | 50.0% | 25.0% | 4.43 | assisted |
| Photograph treated area of patient and process film. | 21.7% | 28.3% | 50.0% | 4.43 | assisted |
| Observe and reassure patients during treatment and report unusual reactions to physician or turn equipment off if unexpected adverse reactions occur. | 11.7% | 38.3% | 50.0% | 4.69 | assisted |
| Educate, prepare, and reassure patients and their families by answering questions, providing physical assistance, and reinforcing physicians' advice regarding treatment reactions or post-treatment care. | 11.2% | 26.2% | 62.5% | 4.64 | untouched |
| Check radiation therapy equipment to ensure proper operation. | 10.0% | 15.0% | 75.0% | 4.74 | untouched |
| Train or supervise student or subordinate radiotherapy technologists. | 5.0% | 20.0% | 75.0% | 3.98 | untouched |
| Check for side effects, such as skin irritation, nausea, or hair loss to assess patients' reaction to treatment. | 3.3% | 21.7% | 75.0% | 4.56 | untouched |
| Implement appropriate follow-up care plans. | 2.1% | 10.4% | 87.5% | 4.20 | untouched |
| Position patients for treatment with accuracy, according to prescription. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.89 | untouched |
| Administer prescribed doses of radiation to specific body parts, using radiation therapy equipment according to established practices and standards. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.89 | untouched |
| Follow principles of radiation protection for patient, self, and others. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.85 | untouched |
| Conduct most treatment sessions independently, in accordance with the long-term treatment plan and under the general direction of the patient's physician. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.80 | untouched |
| Prepare or construct equipment, such as immobilization, treatment, or protection devices. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.54 | untouched |
| Provide assistance to other healthcare personnel during dosimetry procedures and tumor localization. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.15 | untouched |
| Store, sterilize, or prepare the special applicators containing the radioactive substance implanted by the physician. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.95 | untouched |
| Assist in the preparation of sealed radioactive materials, such as cobalt, radium, cesium, or isotopes, for use in radiation treatments. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.76 | 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.