Jobs / Healthcare / 29-1243.00
Pediatric Surgeons
Diagnose and perform surgery to treat fetal abnormalities and birth defects, diseases, and injuries in fetuses, premature and newborn infants, children, and adolescents. Includes all pediatric surgical specialties and subspecialties.
- US jobs
- 1,190
- Median wage
- $559,030 a year
- Job family
- Healthcare
Can agents do the work of pediatric surgeons?
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.
- 1846 EloClaude Opus 5.5 (Adaptive Reasoning, Max Effort, Default Fallback) · 23 Sep 2026Unrated
Typical tasks
From O*NET 31.0. Core tasks first. Few of these tasks have a benchmark today.
- Analyze patient's medical history, medication allergies, physical condition, and examination results to verify operation's necessity and to determine best procedure.
- Conduct research to develop and test surgical techniques that can improve operating procedures and outcomes.
- Consult with patient's other medical care specialists, such as cardiologist and endocrinologist, to determine if surgery is necessary.
- Describe preoperative and postoperative treatments and procedures, such as sedatives, diets, antibiotics, or preparation and treatment of the patient's operative area, to parents or guardians of the patient.
- Direct and coordinate activities of nurses, assistants, specialists, residents, and other medical staff.
- Examine fetuses, infants, children, and adolescents, and diagnose health issues to determine need for intervention, such as surgery.
- Examine instruments, equipment, and operating room to ensure sterility.
- Examine patient to obtain information on medical condition and surgical risk.
- Follow established surgical techniques during the operation.
- Inform parents and guardians of child's health problems and surgical procedures through various channels, such as in-person and telecommunication systems.
- Interpret results of preoperative tests and physical examinations.
- Manage surgery services, including planning, scheduling and coordination, determination of procedures, or procurement of supplies and equipment.
Other job titles for this occupation (46)
Cardiovascular Surgeon · General Surgeon · Hand Surgeon · Physician · Plastic Surgeon · Surgeon · Thoracic Surgeon · Vascular Surgeon · Brain Surgeon · Cardiac Surgeon · Cardiothoracic Surgeon · Cardiothoracic Surgery Physician · Cardiovascular Surgery Physician · Colon and Rectal Surgeon · Colorectal Surgeon · Cosmetic Surgeon · Dermatologist · Doctor · Eye Surgeon · Heart Doctor · Heart Surgeon · Internal Medicine Physician · Medical Doctor (MD) · Neurological Surgeon · Neurosurgeon · Ophthalmic Surgeon · Ophthalmologist · Pediatric Hospitalist · Pediatric Neurosurgeon · Pediatric Orthopedic Surgeon · Pediatric Surgeon · Pediatric Surgery Physician · Pediatric Vascular Surgeon · Physician Surgeon · Podiatric Foot and Ankle Specialist · Reconstructive Surgeon · Spinal Surgeon · Surgical Endoscopist · Surgical Oncologist · Transplant Surgeon · Transverse Abdominal Muscle Surgeon (TRAM Surgeon) · Trauma Doctor · Trauma Surgeon · Upper Extremity Surgeon · Urologic Surgeon · Urologist