Epidemiologists

Monitor and report incidents of infectious diseases to local and state health agencies.

AI: Fully automatable - AI can ingest electronic surveillance data, detect signals, and automatically generate and transmit reports to health agencies where legal and technical integrations exist.

Communicate research findings on various types of diseases to health practitioners, policy makers, and the public.

AI: Fully automatable - AI can draft and tailor research summaries, policy briefs and public communications at scale and in multiple formats, enabling full automation of message production though humans often retain final approval.

Educate healthcare workers, patients, and the public about infectious and communicable diseases, including disease transmission and prevention.

AI: Fully automatable - By 2025 AI systems can generate accurate, tailored educational materials, deliver interactive tutoring and public messaging about infectious diseases at scale, effectively carrying out education tasks though human oversight is advisable.

Identify and analyze public health issues related to foodborne parasitic diseases and their impact on public policies, scientific studies, or surveys.

AI: Fully automatable - AI and analytics tools can ingest surveillance and literature data to identify and quantify public-health impacts of foodborne parasitic diseases and produce policy-relevant analyses and reports end-to-end.

Oversee public health programs, including statistical analysis, health care planning, surveillance systems, and public health improvement.

AI: Partial - AI can perform statistical analyses, drive surveillance analytics and support planning, but program oversight, policy decisions and stakeholder management remain human responsibilities.

Plan and direct studies to investigate human or animal disease, preventive methods, and treatments for disease.

AI: Partial - AI can design studies, simulate outcomes and analyze data, but cannot assume responsibility for ethical approvals, clinical oversight, and field coordination.

Provide expertise in the design, management and evaluation of study protocols and health status questionnaires, sample selection, and analysis.

AI: Partial - AI can draft protocols, compute sample sizes, design questionnaires and run analyses, yet final validation, ethical review, and contextual judgment still need human experts.

Investigate diseases or parasites to determine cause and risk factors, progress, life cycle, or mode of transmission.

AI: Partial - AI can analyze case data, model transmission and generate hypotheses about causes and risk factors, but cannot carry out laboratory experiments, specimen collection, or confirmatory biological assays independently.

Plan, administer and evaluate health safety standards and programs to improve public health, conferring with health department, industry personnel, physicians, and others.

AI: Partial - AI can analyze data, draft plans and evaluate program outcomes but cannot fully replace the human leadership, stakeholder negotiation, legal authority, and political judgment needed to administer public health programs.

Conduct research to develop methodologies, instrumentation, and procedures for medical application, analyzing data and presenting findings.

AI: Partial - AI can design experiments, analyze complex datasets, and draft/visualize findings, but developing novel instrumentation and validating new laboratory procedures still requires hands-on engineering, prototyping, and human-driven validation.

Supervise professional, technical, and clerical personnel.

AI: Partial - AI can assist with scheduling, performance tracking and decision support but cannot fully perform the interpersonal, legal, and ethical responsibilities of supervising professional and clerical staff.

Standardize drug dosages, methods of immunization, and procedures for manufacture of drugs and medicinal compounds.

AI: Partial - AI can analyze clinical trial data and model dosing/manufacturing processes to propose standardizations, but setting official drug dosages, immunization methods, and manufacturing procedures requires clinical validation and regulatory authority that AI cannot assume.

Teach principles of medicine and medical and laboratory procedures to physicians, residents, students, and technicians.

AI: Partial - AI can deliver didactic teaching, simulations, assessments, and instructional materials for medical and lab procedures, but it cannot fully replace hands-on mentoring, clinical supervision, credentialing, and bedside instruction.

Consult with and advise physicians, educators, researchers, government health officials and others regarding medical applications of sciences, such as physics, biology, and chemistry.

AI: Partial - AI can synthesize evidence and provide technically sound advice across physics, biology, and chemistry applications, but it lacks the accountability, contextual judgment, and interdisciplinary negotiation skills required to be the sole consultant.

Prepare and analyze samples to study effects of drugs, gases, pesticides, or microorganisms on cell structure and tissue.

AI: Partial - Lab automation and AI-driven analysis can perform many sample preparation and analytical steps, yet complex wet-lab manipulations, troubleshooting, and final quality judgments still require human operators and oversight.