Career Explorer Healthcare (clinical)
Human edge, steady
Emergency medicine physicians
Make immediate medical decisions and act to prevent death or further disability. Provide immediate recognition, evaluation, care, stabilization, and disposition of patients. May direct emergency medical staff in an emergency department.
More resilient than most: more resilient than 71% of the 831 careers we score. AI exposure is moderate (the Bureau of Labor Statistics rates it high), and US jobs are projected to change by +3.2% by 2035, slower than average. The work leans on ethical judgement and emotional intelligence.
AI struggles with much of this work. Hiring is expected to grow slower than average, or to shrink.
- Median pay (2025)
- $335,550
- Job growth to 2035
- +3.2%
- Openings a year
- 900
- People doing it (2025)
- 34,900
- Usual route in
- Doctorate or professional degree, then an internship or residency
Where people already use AI for this work
- Analyze health or medical data
- Advise patients or clients on medical issues
- Assist others to access additional services or resources
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Evaluate patient or client condition or treatment options
- Monitor health conditions of humans or animals
- Confer with healthcare or other professionals about patient care
What the work looks like
- Select, request, perform, or interpret diagnostic procedures, such as laboratory tests, electrocardiograms, emergency ultrasounds, and radiographs.
- Evaluate patients' vital signs or laboratory data to determine emergency intervention needs and priority of treatment.
- Perform emergency resuscitations on patients.
- Stabilize patients in critical condition.
- Perform such medical procedures as emergent cricothyrotomy, endotracheal intubation, and emergency thoracotomy.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
What the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects
- Fewer of these jobs, as nurse practitioners and physician assistants are increasingly utilized, relative to emergency medicine physicians, to provide care in hospital emergency departments.
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
- AnesthesiologistsHuman edge, growing, Index 85, +3.6%
- Nurse midwivesGrows with AI, Index 81, +11.5%
- Physical therapistsGrows with AI, Index 76, +11.9%
- Nurse practitionersGrows with AI, Index 88, +41.0%
Also known as: Attending Emergency Physician, Emergency Medicine Physician (EM Physician), Emergency Physician, Physician, Attending Physician, Emergency MD (Emergency Medicine Doctor), MD (Medical Doctor).
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Sources: US Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections 2025 to 2035; O*NET 31.0; Microsoft Research (2025); Anthropic Economic Index (2026); Eloundou and colleagues (Science, 2024); Felten, Raj and Seamans (2023). How we score. Updated 12 October 2026.