Jobs / Healthcare / 29-2012.00

Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technicians

Perform routine medical laboratory tests for the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease. May work under the supervision of a medical technologist.

US jobs
Not reported by BLS
Job family
Healthcare

Can agents do the work of medical and clinical laboratory technicians?

We read the evidence at the level of the job family, Healthcare:

  • Task levelPartialOne benchmark, from early 2025. On Stanford's MedAgentBench, where agents do clinical tasks in a simulated electronic health record, the best recorded model completes 69.7% of tasks (Claude 3.5 Sonnet v2). It has no maintained leaderboard, so newer models are not measured. No benchmark in our collection tests work with patients.
  • Project levelPartialOnly adjacent evidence. GDPval includes nurses among its 44 occupations. OpenAI reports that GPT-5.5's deliverables won or tied against professionals' work in 84.9% of comparisons across all occupations. No benchmark in our collection tests clinical work over days, such as managing a patient's care.

Benchmarks for the job family

These cover work in healthcare, not always this occupation's tasks.

  • GDPvalby OpenAIProject level · Wins plus ties against experts
    84.9%GPT-5.5 · Apr 2026
    Strong
  • GDPval-AAby Artificial AnalysisProject level · GDPval-AA Elo
    1846 EloClaude Opus 5.5 (Adaptive Reasoning, Max Effort, Default Fallback) · 23 Sep 2026
    Unrated
  • MedAgentBenchby Stanford UniversityTask level · Task success rate
    69.7%Claude 3.5 Sonnet v2 · 24 Jan 2025
    Strong

Typical tasks

From O*NET 31.0. Core tasks first. Few of these tasks have a benchmark today.

  • Perform quality control analyses to ensure accuracy of test results.
  • Conduct blood tests for transfusion purposes and perform blood counts.
  • Conduct chemical analyses of body fluids, such as blood or urine, using microscope or automatic analyzer to detect abnormalities or diseases and enter findings into computer.
  • Analyze the results of tests or experiments to ensure conformity to specifications, using special mechanical or electrical devices.
  • Set up, maintain, calibrate, clean, and test sterility of medical laboratory equipment.
  • Examine cells stained with dye to locate abnormalities.
  • Prepare standard volumetric solutions or reagents to be combined with samples, following standardized formulas or experimental procedures.
  • Supervise or instruct other technicians or laboratory assistants.
  • Consult with a pathologist to determine a final diagnosis when abnormal cells are found.
  • Obtain specimens, cultivating, isolating, and identifying microorganisms for analysis.
  • Collect blood or tissue samples from patients, observing principles of asepsis to obtain blood sample.
  • Test raw materials, processes, or finished products to determine quality or quantity of materials or characteristics of a substance.
Other job titles for this occupation (30)

Clinical Lab Tech (Clinical Laboratory Technician) · Lab Assistant (Laboratory Assistant) · Lab Associate (Laboratory Associate) · Lab Tech (Laboratory Technician) · Medical Lab Assistant (Medical Laboratory Assistant) · Medical Technician (Medical Tech) · Microbiology MLT (Microbiology Medical Laboratory Technician) · MLT (Medical Laboratory Technician) · Specimen Processor · Travel Medical Lab Tech (Travel Medical Laboratory Technician) · Blood and Plasma Lab Assistant (Blood and Plasma Laboratory Assistant) · Blood Bank Lab Tech (Blood Bank Laboratory Technician) · Blood Bank Technician (Blood Bank Tech) · Blood Technician (Blood Tech) · Blood Typer · Clinical Lab Assistant (Clinical Laboratory Assistant) · Clinical Technician (Clinical Tech) · Donor Center Technician (Donor Center Tech) · Hematology Technician (Hematology Tech) · Lab Worker (Laboratory Worker) · Medical Lab Specialist (Medical Laboratory Specialist) · Pathological Technician (Pathological Tech) · Pathologist Assistant · Pathology Technician (Pathology Tech) · Serology Technician (Serology Tech) · Sleep Technician (Sleep Tech) · Specimen Accessioner · Specimen Collector · Specimen Technician (Specimen Tech) · Tissue Technician (Tissue Tech)