Career Explorer Healthcare (clinical)
Human edge, growing
Ophthalmic medical technicians
Assist ophthalmologists by performing ophthalmic clinical functions. May administer eye exams, administer eye medications, and instruct the patient in care and use of corrective lenses.
Among the most resilient careers: more resilient than 97% of the 831 careers we score. AI exposure is low (the Bureau of Labor Statistics rates it low), and US jobs are projected to change by +21.4% by 2035, much faster than average. The work leans on emotional intelligence.
AI struggles with much of this work, and US employers are expected to hire more people into it than average.
- Median pay (2025)
- $45,570
- Job growth to 2035
- +21.4%
- Openings a year
- 11,800
- People doing it (2025)
- 72,500
- Usual route in
- College certificate
Where people already use AI for this work
- Advise others on products or services
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Administer diagnostic tests to assess patient health
- Maintain health or medical records
- Examine people or animals to assess health conditions or physical characteristics
What the work looks like
- Take and document patients' medical histories.
- Conduct tonometry or tonography tests to measure intraocular pressure.
- Operate ophthalmic equipment, such as autorefractors, phoropters, tomographs, or retinoscopes.
- Take anatomical or functional ocular measurements of the eye or surrounding tissue, such as axial length measurements.
- Measure visual acuity, including near, distance, pinhole, or dynamic visual acuity, using appropriate tests.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
What the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects
- More of these jobs, as offices of optometrists increasingly employ ophthalmic medical technicians who can perform a variety of patient care tasks, allowing optometrists to examine more patients and do other more complex tasks.
- More of these jobs, as offices of physicians increasingly employ ophthalmic medical technicians who can perform a variety of patient care tasks, allowing ophthalmologists to examine more patients and do other more complex tasks.
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
- OrderliesHuman edge, growing, Index 98, +4.0%
- PhlebotomistsHuman edge, growing, Index 99, +6.8%
- Medical equipment preparersHuman edge, growing, Index 99, +10.8%
- Home health and personal care aidesHuman edge, growing, Index 99, +18.1%
Also known as: Certified Ophthalmic Surgical Assistant, Certified Ophthalmic Technician (COT), Ophthalmic Assistant, Ophthalmic Tech (Ophthalmic Technician), Certified Ophthalmic Medical Technician (Certified Ophthalmic Medical Tech), Certified Ophthalmic Technician-Surgical Assistant (COT-SA), Health Technician (Health Tech), Ophthalmic Diagnostic Sonographer.
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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.