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The differences between medical support assistants and certified medical technicians can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 1-2 years to become a medical support assistant, becoming a certified medical technician takes usually requires 6-12 months. Additionally, a certified medical technician has an average salary of $38,859, which is higher than the $35,390 average annual salary of a medical support assistant.
The top three skills for a medical support assistant include patients, patient care and advanced life support. The most important skills for a certified medical technician are patients, vital signs, and CPR.
| Medical Support Assistant | Certified Medical Technician | |
| Yearly salary | $35,390 | $38,859 |
| Hourly rate | $17.01 | $18.68 |
| Growth rate | -8% | 5% |
| Number of jobs | 190,633 | 164,424 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 39% | Bachelor's Degree, 28% |
| Average age | 49 | 44 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 12 |
A medical support assistant job is mainly in health care services, such as hospitals, medical clinics, and private doctors who perform administrative duties and organizing schedules and records. They work together with patients' physicians, nurses, and other medical personnel. Assistants can directly work with patients and call insurance firms on their behalf to inquire about insurance coverage. Medical support assistants encode data on a computer regarding patients' medications, treatment, and lab test results.
Certified Medical Technicians are specialists in medical diagnoses by performing laboratory testing and analysis for hospitals and physicians. Their duties include lab sanitization to prepare for testing and collection, recording medical samples for testing, specimen preparation, blood drawing for donation and testing, and assisting physicians with sample collection as well as equipment handling in surgical rooms. They must also understand how to use complex and sensitive testing equipment such as cell counters, analyzers, microscopes, and centrifuges.
Medical support assistants and certified medical technicians have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Medical Support Assistant | Certified Medical Technician | |
| Average salary | $35,390 | $38,859 |
| Salary range | Between $28,000 And $44,000 | Between $28,000 And $53,000 |
| Highest paying City | Portland, ME | Denton, TX |
| Highest paying state | Connecticut | Alaska |
| Best paying company | Microsoft | Favorite Healthcare Staffing |
| Best paying industry | Government | Health Care |
There are a few differences between a medical support assistant and a certified medical technician in terms of educational background:
| Medical Support Assistant | Certified Medical Technician | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 39% | Bachelor's Degree, 28% |
| Most common major | Business | Nursing |
| Most common college | - | University of Connecticut |
Here are the differences between medical support assistants' and certified medical technicians' demographics:
| Medical Support Assistant | Certified Medical Technician | |
| Average age | 49 | 44 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 24.9% Female, 75.1% | Male, 20.4% Female, 79.6% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 9.6% Unknown, 3.8% Hispanic or Latino, 12.0% Asian, 3.8% White, 70.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% | Black or African American, 15.9% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 14.6% Asian, 10.0% White, 53.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8% |
| LGBT Percentage | 9% | 8% |