{ "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register", "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/podiatrists/", "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": "Podiatrists", "soc_code": "29-1081", "category": "Healthcare", "us_employment": 9680, "median_annual_wage": 160300 }, "verdict": "SAFE", "risk_resistance": 88, "contested": false, "near_boundary": false, "dimensions": { "task_resistance": 16, "embodiment": 19, "liability_shield": 19, "trust_premium": 16, "judgment_accountability": 18 }, "reasoning": { "task_resistance": "Sharp debridement of a neuropathic ulcer, hammertoe arthroplasty, Achilles injections under palpation, plaster or fiberglass casting, and weight-bearing gait analysis are procedural acts performed on a living foot — AI can pre-read the radiograph and draft the note, which is why this sits at 16 and not 19.", "embodiment": "You work in a chair with a scalpel, nail nipper, and rotary burr inches from an insensate diabetic foot, in podiatry clinics, nursing homes, and hospital ORs where the anatomy is infected, deformed, or bleeding — 19 rather than 20 only because much of it happens in a controlled treatment room rather than a roadside or a mine.", "liability_shield": "A DPM license from a state podiatric medical board, DEA registration for post-op analgesics, and hospital surgical privileges are all held personally, and when an amputation level is chosen wrongly the malpractice claim names you — 19 reflects that the scope of practice itself is statutorily fenced to the foot and ankle, a boundary no software can cross into.", "trust_premium": "Diabetic patients come back every 8 to 12 weeks for years and let you cut on a limb they cannot feel, which is a relationship built on the fact that you were the one who saved the last toe; it stops short of 19 because referral flow from endocrinologists and podiatry group scheduling drive a real share of your panel.", "judgment_accountability": "Deciding whether a wound gets another four weeks of offloading or goes to transmetatarsal amputation, reading whether osteomyelitis is present when the probe-to-bone test and MRI disagree, and judging vascular status before elective surgery are calls with a limb on the line and no protocol that resolves them — 18 because much routine nail and orthotic work runs on established pathways." }, "rationale": "A podiatrist's day is debridement of diabetic ulcers, nail and bunion surgery, injections, casting, gait exams, and biomechanical assessment by hand — none of which current robotics can do in a clinic chair. AI is genuinely good at reading foot X-rays and MRIs, drafting notes, and suggesting orthotic parameters, but a DPM license and personal malpractice exposure sit on every diagnosis, prescription, and surgical decision, especially in high-stakes diabetic limb-salvage calls. The shield here is regulatory and could narrow if imaging reads and triage move to AI plus mid-level staff, but the operative and wound-care core is physically anchored.", "outlook": "Diabetes and an aging population keep demand rising through the 2030s; AI absorbs charting and first-pass imaging reads, which raises patients-per-day rather than shrinking the profession.", "what_would_raise_it": { "levers": [ { "dimension": "liability_shield", "change": "State scope-of-practice fights already run the other way (expanding what DPMs may treat above the ankle, e.g. Ohio/Arizona bills, and CMS parity of DPMs as 'physicians'). A concrete raise: a state board or Medicare rule requiring that autonomous AI wound-imaging or diabetic-risk triage output be countersigned by the treating DPM before it can support a limb-salvage or amputation decision — analogous to the pharmacist-countersign rules being written for AI dosing.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 1 }, { "dimension": "judgment_accountability", "change": "If diabetic limb-salvage moves further into formal multidisciplinary 'toe-and-flow' teams with a named DPM as the accountable limb-preservation lead (as IWGDF guidelines and some VA/academic limb-salvage programs already structure it), the consequential amputate-or-salvage call becomes explicitly owned rather than shared.", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 2 }, { "dimension": "task_resistance", "change": "Genuine two-tier job: if AI plus techs absorb routine nail care, orthotic parameter setting, and first-pass X-ray reads, the residual day concentrates into surgery, complex wound debridement, and Charcot/biomechanical judgment — task mix shifts upward without any new law. Watch for reimbursement changes pushing routine nail debridement to assistants.", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 1 } ], "ceiling_note": "At 88 the occupation is already near the register's practical ceiling; embodiment (19) and liability_shield (19) have essentially no headroom, and trust_premium is capped because patients buy a licensed foot surgeon, not a human-versus-machine preference. The realistic movement here is defensive — keeping the shield from narrowing as imaging reads devolve to AI plus mid-levels — not raising the total." }, "adjudication": null, "employment_history": { "points": [ { "y": 2017, "emp": 9670, "wage": 127740 }, { "y": 2018, "emp": 9500, "wage": 129550 }, { "y": 2019, "emp": 9770, "wage": 126240 }, { "y": 2020, "emp": 9710, "wage": 134300 }, { "y": 2021, "emp": 8840, "wage": 145840 }, { "y": 2022, "emp": 9320, "wage": 148720 }, { "y": 2023, "emp": 9470, "wage": 141650 }, { "y": 2024, "emp": 9520, "wage": 152800 }, { "y": 2025, "emp": 9680, "wage": 160300 } ], "from": 2017, "to": 2025, "change_pct": 0.1, "comparable_from": 2019, "spans_soc_revision": true }, "pivots": [], "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms" }