{ "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register", "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/medical-equipment-repairers/", "methodology": "https://cookedindex.com/methodology", "notice": "Verdicts are re-examined as evidence accumulates. Re-fetch before relying on this; the page above always carries the current score.", "scored_at": "2026-08-11", "model": "claude-opus-5", "occupation": { "title": "Medical Equipment Repairers", "soc_code": "49-9062", "category": "Trades", "us_employment": 65990, "median_annual_wage": 61660 }, "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 64, "contested": false, "near_boundary": false, "dimensions": { "task_resistance": 15, "embodiment": 18, "liability_shield": 8, "trust_premium": 10, "judgment_accountability": 13 }, "reasoning": { "task_resistance": "Replacing a defibrillator's charging capacitor, calibrating a ventilator's flow sensor against a gas analyzer, and torquing a surgical table's actuator to spec are hand-eye tasks with no digital substitute — the 15 rather than 18 reflects that a real slice of the job (PM scheduling, fault-code triage, CMMS documentation, ordering the right board from the OEM) is already being absorbed by software and OEM remote sessions.", "embodiment": "The work happens under an imaging gantry, in an occupied ICU room, inside a cramped radiology suite with lead shielding, and in ORs where you gown up to fix a light or a scope tower — uncontrolled, contaminated, physically awkward spaces that no fixed automation reaches, with the 18 rather than 20 acknowledging the bench-repair and remote-support hours in the shop.", "liability_shield": "CBET, CRES and OEM factory certification are how you get hired and how you get access to service keys, but no state requires a licence to open a dialysis machine — the 8 comes from the fact that your PM stickers, electrical-safety test records and repair logs are Joint Commission and FDA MDR evidence, so your signature does carry regulatory weight even though the hospital, not you, is the accountable entity.", "trust_premium": "Nurse managers and OR staff call you by name and hold cases for you because you know which of their six pumps drifts and which anesthesia machine the vendor keeps mis-fixing — but that trust is portable to whoever shows up with the right parts and turnaround, which keeps it at 10 rather than the 15+ of a role where the person is the service.", "judgment_accountability": "Deciding whether a ventilator returns to patient use or gets condemned, whether an intermittent alarm is a failing sensor or an OEM software defect worth an MDR report, and whether to run a critical device with a workaround until parts land are calls made with incomplete evidence and patient consequences — the 13 rather than higher reflects that AAMI standards, OEM service procedures and manufacturer spec limits define much of the envelope you work inside." }, "rationale": "Biomedical equipment technicians spend their day physically inside infusion pumps, ventilators, dialysis machines, surgical tables and imaging systems — swapping boards, calibrating sensors, running electrical-safety and performance-verification tests on hospital floors and in ORs. AI is already eating the paperwork layer (service manual lookup, fault-code interpretation, PM scheduling, work-order documentation, parts sourcing) and OEM remote diagnostics increasingly resolve software faults without a site visit, but nobody has a robot that can open a C-arm in a cramped radiology suite. The shield is weaker than in licensed trades: certification (CBET, OEM-specific training) is expected, not legally mandated, and accountability mostly runs through the hospital's Joint Commission compliance program rather than a personal signature.", "outlook": "Employment holds roughly flat to modestly up as device fleets grow and age, but the routine-PM-and-paperwork share of the job shrinks; the technicians who keep imaging, OR and networked devices running on-site keep the leverage.", "what_would_raise_it": { "levers": [ { "dimension": "liability_shield", "change": "State licensure of biomedical equipment technicians on the model already attempted in bills (e.g., proposed BMET licensure/registration efforts and the recurring FDA 'right to repair'/servicing-vs-remanufacturing rulemaking following the FDA's 2018 servicing report). If FDA issues a rule requiring a named, qualified individual to attest that a serviced device was returned to OEM performance spec — or if CMS/Joint Commission EC.02.04.03 is tightened to require a personally signed competency attestation per high-risk device (ventilators, infusion pumps, linacs) rather than program-level compliance — the shield moves from program accountability to individual signature.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 5 }, { "dimension": "liability_shield", "change": "Radiation-producing equipment already requires state-registered medical physicist or registered service-provider sign-off on linac/CT calibration in many states; extending that registration model to broader imaging service (mammography MQSA-style annual survey signed by a named person, applied to CT/fluoro) would pull a slice of BMET work under a personal-liability signature.", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 3 }, { "dimension": "task_resistance", "change": "Task-mix shift is real here: the occupation has a routine tier (PM checklists, fault-code lookup, board swaps under OEM script) and a judgment tier (undocumented multi-fault failures, cybersecurity remediation on legacy networked devices, incident investigation for patient-harm events reportable under MDR/21 CFR 803, integration of third-party parts where OEM support is withdrawn). If OEM remote diagnostics and AI documentation absorb the routine tier, the residual day is the judgment tier and resistance rises without any new law.", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 3 }, { "dimension": "judgment_accountability", "change": "If medical-device cybersecurity duties consolidate into the BMET role — FDA's 2023 section 524B premarket cyber requirements plus hospital IT/HTM convergence pushing patch/decommission decisions onto HTM staff — the role starts owning consequential 'keep this device on the network or pull it from service' calls under ambiguity, with named accountability in incident reporting.", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 4 }, { "dimension": "judgment_accountability", "change": "Formal authority to remove a device from clinical service over clinician objection, written into hospital policy or a union contract (as some 1199/AFSCME hospital agreements do for safety refusals), converts advisory findings into an owned decision.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 2 } ], "ceiling_note": "Trust premium has no plausible route: the buyer is a hospital procurement/HTM department optimizing cost and uptime, and no patient ever specifies a human technician. Realistic upside is concentrated in liability_shield and judgment_accountability, roughly +8 to +12 total, and much of that depends on FDA device-servicing rulemaking that has stalled since 2018. Embodiment is already carrying most of the score and cannot rise." }, "adjudication": null, "employment_history": { "points": [ { "y": 2017, "emp": 43670, "wage": 48820 }, { "y": 2018, "emp": 46320, "wage": 49210 }, { "y": 2019, "emp": 46370, "wage": 49280 }, { "y": 2020, "emp": 48510, "wage": 51610 }, { "y": 2021, "emp": 53400, "wage": 49910 }, { "y": 2022, "emp": 58830, "wage": 57860 }, { "y": 2023, "emp": 64400, "wage": 60670 }, { "y": 2024, "emp": 60830, "wage": 62630 }, { "y": 2025, "emp": 65990, "wage": 61660 } ], "from": 2017, "to": 2025, "change_pct": 51.1, "comparable_from": 2019, "spans_soc_revision": true }, "pivots": [ { "slug": "heating-air-conditioning-and-refrigeration-mechanics-and-installers", "title": "Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers", "verdict": "SAFE", "risk_resistance": 75, "median_wage": 61010, "overlap": 77, "skills_to_close": [ "Installation", "Management of Personnel Resources", "Systems Evaluation" ] } ], "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms" }