Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physicians
Health ScienceO*NET 29-1229.04United States
Diagnose and treat disorders requiring physiotherapy to provide physical, mental, and occupational rehabilitation.
- Median annual earnings
- $264,678
- Projected change
- +6.6%
- Typical education
- Doctoral degree or more
- Employment
- 383.26K jobs
50th percentile, United States
2025 to 2035
97.9% of the workforce
Growing to 408.63K by 2035
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The work
What physical medicine and rehabilitation physicians do
Tasks reported for this occupation, ordered by how often they come up in the role.
- Document examination results, treatment plans, and patients' outcomes.
- Examine patients to assess mobility, strength, communication, or cognition.
- Assess characteristics of patients' pain, such as intensity, location, or duration, using standardized clinical measures.
- Provide inpatient or outpatient medical management of neuromuscular disorders, musculoskeletal trauma, acute and chronic pain, deformity or amputation, cardiac or pulmonary disease, or other disabling conditions.
- Monitor effectiveness of pain management interventions, such as medication or spinal injections.
- Develop comprehensive plans for immediate and long-term rehabilitation, including therapeutic exercise, speech and occupational therapy, counseling, cognitive retraining, patient, family or caregiver education, or community reintegration.
- Coordinate physical medicine and rehabilitation services with other medical activities.
- Prescribe physical therapy to relax the muscles and improve strength.
- Perform electrodiagnosis, including electromyography, nerve conduction studies, or somatosensory evoked potentials of neuromuscular disorders or damage.
- Consult or coordinate with other rehabilitative professionals, including physical and occupational therapists, rehabilitation nurses, speech pathologists, neuropsychologists, behavioral psychologists, social workers, or medical technicians.
- Prescribe therapy services, such as electrotherapy, ultrasonography, heat or cold therapy, hydrotherapy, debridement, short-wave or microwave diathermy, and infrared or ultraviolet radiation, to enhance rehabilitation.
- Instruct interns and residents in the diagnosis and treatment of temporary or permanent physically disabling conditions.
- Diagnose or treat performance-related conditions, such as sports injuries or repetitive-motion injuries.
- Prescribe orthotic and prosthetic applications and adaptive equipment, such as wheelchairs, bracing, or communication devices, to maximize patient function and self-sufficiency.
- Conduct physical tests, such as functional capacity evaluations, to determine injured workers' capabilities to perform the physical demands of their jobs.
Pay and outlook
What the job pays and where it is heading
Annual earnings range
Reported earnings by percentile, United States
- 10th percentile
- $68,159
- 25th percentile
- $103,400
- 50th percentile
- $264,678
- 75th percentile
- $378,194
- 90th percentile
- $457,922
The gold marker shows the median. Half earn more than $264,678 and half earn less.
Employment outlook
2025 to 2035 projection
+6.6%faster than average
2025383,256 jobs
2035 projected408,631 jobs
25,375 more positions over the decade, before replacement hiring.
Preparation
Education levels
What people currently working in the career hold. These are not entry requirements.
- Doctoral degree or more
- 97.9%
- Master's or Professional degree
- 1.3%
- Bachelor's degree
- 0.8%
Skills
Skills employers ask for
Technical skills appearing most often in job postings for this occupation.
How the work gets done
Core competencies
Broad capabilities associated with strong performance in this occupation.
- Critical Thinking
- Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
- Reading Comprehension
- Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
- Active Listening
- Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Social Perceptiveness
- Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Speaking
- Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Monitoring
- Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Complex Problem Solving
- Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Writing
- Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Coordination
- Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Active Learning
- Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Service Orientation
- Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Instructing
- Teaching others how to do something.
- Time Management
- Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Science
- Using scientific rules and methods to solve problems.
- Persuasion
- Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
- Systems Evaluation
- Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
- Learning Strategies
- Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
- Management of Personnel Resources
- Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
- Systems Analysis
- Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
In the market
Job titles and employers
Recent job postings in United StatesCommon job titles
- 01Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physicians6,164 postings
- 02Physiatrists683 postings
- 03Pain Management Physicians252 postings
- 04Locum Tenens Physicians174 postings
- 05DO Physicians124 postings
- 06Clinical Trainers74 postings
- 07Locum Tenens Physiatry Physicians73 postings
- 08Pediatric Physiatrists71 postings
- 09Pulmonology Physicians69 postings
- 10Neonatologists57 postings
- 11Medical Doctors56 postings
- 12Nurse Navigators54 postings
- 13Orthopedic Physicians50 postings
- 14Pain Management Specialists44 postings
- 15Interventional Pain Management Physicians43 postings
- 16Locums Tenens42 postings
- 17Hospitalists35 postings
- 18Geriatric Physicians33 postings
- 19Medicine Physicians31 postings
- 20Advanced Practice Providers30 postings
Top employers
- 01CompHealth907 postings
- 02Weatherby Healthcare558 postings
- 03Glenda Medrina523 postings
- 04Vohra Wound Physicians496 postings
- 05Britt Medical Search375 postings
- 06Enterprise Medical Recruiting321 postings
- 07Hayman Daugherty Associates308 postings
- 08United States Department of Veterans Affairs170 postings
- 09All Star HealthCare165 postings
- 10AMN Healthcare143 postings
- 11Qtc Medical Group134 postings
- 12International Medical Placement, Ltd.132 postings
- 13The Curare Group110 postings
- 14Encompass Health109 postings
- 15Mrg Exams105 postings
- 16Alpha Medical Partners103 postings
- 17Jackson Physician Search97 postings
- 18Concentra88 postings
- 19Surgical Information Systems82 postings
- 20Pacific Companies78 postings
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