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O*NET detailed work activityDiagnose medical conditions
Stays humanMake the call
29 jobs39 tasks
This is an accountable judgment call. Someone has to weigh the full situation and stand behind the decision, and that's you, often with legal or professional responsibility.
Part of Diagnose health conditions or disorders, under the O*NET work activity group Making Decisions and Solving Problems. Individual tasks below can carry a different label when their own wording calls for it (0 AI-ready, 0 AI-assist, 39 stays human).
Tasks built on this activity
- Evaluate, diagnose, or treat disorders of the visual system with an emphasis on binocular vision or abnormal eye movements.
- Make tentative diagnoses and decisions about management and treatment of patients.
- Diagnose or treat disorders of the musculoskeletal system.
- Diagnose diseases or study medical conditions, using techniques such as gross pathology, histology, cytology, cytopathology, clinical chemistry, immunology, flow cytometry, or molecular biology.
- Diagnose, treat, or provide continuous care to hospital inpatients.
- Diagnose psychiatric disorders and mental health conditions.
- Diagnose and treat pigmented lesions such as common acquired nevi, congenital nevi, dysplastic nevi, Spitz nevi, blue nevi, or melanoma.
- Diagnose and treat skin conditions such as acne, dandruff, athlete's foot, moles, psoriasis, or skin cancer.
- Diagnose or treat allergic or immunologic conditions.
- Diagnose or treat chronic health care problems, such as high blood pressure and diabetes.
- Distinguish between physiologically- and psychologically-based disorders, and diagnose appropriately.
- Provide and manage long-term, comprehensive medical care, including diagnosis and nonsurgical treatment of diseases, for adult patients in an office or hospital.
- Diagnose or treat complex, unstable, comorbid, episodic, or emergency conditions in collaboration with other health care providers as necessary.
- Make diagnoses when different illnesses occur together or in situations where the diagnosis may be obscure.
- Perform ophthalmic triage, in the office or by phone, to assess severity of patients' conditions.
- Diagnose or treat performance-related conditions, such as sports injuries or repetitive-motion injuries.
- Diagnose acute or chronic conditions that could result in rapid physiological deterioration or life-threatening instability.
- Diagnose illnesses, using examinations, tests, and reports.
- Distinguish between normal and abnormal developmental and age-related physiological and behavioral changes in acute, critical, and chronic illness.
- Diagnose mental and emotional disorders in clients.
- Provide direct care by performing comprehensive health assessments, developing differential diagnoses, conducting specialized tests, or prescribing medications or treatments.
- Identify visual impairments related to basic life skills in areas such as self care, literacy, communication, health management, home management, and meal preparation.
- Diagnose bodily disorders and orthopedic conditions, and provide treatments, such as medicines and surgeries, in clinics, hospital wards, or operating rooms.
- Diagnose or treat disorders of the musculoskeletal system.
- Diagnose and treat hearing or related disabilities under the direction of an audiologist.
Tasks where it is part of the work
- Select, request, perform, or interpret diagnostic procedures, such as laboratory tests, electrocardiograms, emergency ultrasounds, and radiographs.
- Diagnose diseases and deformities of the foot using medical histories, physical examinations, x-rays, and laboratory test results.
- Diagnose or treat injuries, disorders, or diseases of the eye and eye structures including the cornea, sclera, conjunctiva, or eyelids.
- Diagnose health problems by reviewing patients' health and medical histories, questioning, observing, and examining patients and interpreting x-rays.
- Diagnose or treat acute health care problems, such as illnesses, infections, or injuries.
- Diagnose or treat diseases or disorders of genitourinary organs and tracts including erectile dysfunction (ED), infertility, incontinence, bladder cancer, prostate cancer, urethral stones, or premature ejaculation.
- Diagnose neurological conditions based on interpretation of examination findings, histories, or test results.
- Diagnose health conditions, based on patients' symptoms and health histories, laboratory and diagnostic radiology test results, or other physiological measurements, such as electrocardiograms and electroencephalographs.
- Identify and treat major neurological system diseases and disorders, such as central nervous system infection, cranio spinal trauma, dementia, and stroke.
- Identify, monitor, or treat pregnancy-related problems such as hypertension, gestational diabetes, pre-term labor, or retarded fetal growth.
- Diagnose infections, such as Hepatitis B and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), by conducting tests to detect the antibodies that patients' immune systems make to fight such infections.
- Examine fetuses, infants, children, and adolescents, and diagnose health issues to determine need for intervention, such as surgery.
- Identify tubal and ectopic pregnancies and refer patients for treatments.
- Perform physical examinations, make tentative diagnoses, and treat patients en route to hospitals or at disaster site triage centers.