The competent authority is obliged to set up a specialist medical service to fulfill its public health service duties. In Lower Saxony, all doctors who work in these specialist medical services and have completed special further training in the field of public health are regarded as public health officers. (In contrast, the medical management of municipal health authorities used to be referred to as Amtsärztin or Amtsarzt).

One of their main tasks is to carry out medical examinations and assessments and to draw up expert reports, certificates and attestations. Many legal provisions expressly require an official medical examination. They are often commissioned even if this is not expressly required. One of the reasons for this is that medical officers are characterized by their particular independence and their special additional expertise in the field of public administration. They act on behalf of other authorities as well as private individuals.

Public health officers also carry out other activities, for example in the areas of health prevention, infection protection and environmental hygiene.

Examples of public health officer activities and examinations on behalf of authorities:

• Recruitment examinations of applicants for the civil service
• Determination of health suitability for the exercise of certain professions
• Fitness for duty of civil servants
• Fitness for work of employees in the public sector
• Assessments in accordance with the German Social Code - Twelfth Book (SGB XII)
• Determination of the medical necessity of remedies and aids as well as therapeutic and sanatorium cures for public sector employees
• Assessment of capacity to be detained, capacity to stand trial, culpability, capacity for work/employment, care in the legal sense for courts
• Determination of a person's fitness to travel, e.g. for courts and immigration authorities
• Determination of health suitability for driving motor vehicles
• Determination of the need for care in accordance with the German Social Code - Eleventh Book (SGB XI)

Examples of official medical activities and examinations on behalf of private individuals:

• Students: Waiver of tuition fees for health reasons
• Students: Determination of inability to take examinations for health reasons
• Students: Extension of the deadline for submitting the diploma thesis due to illness / Certification of the necessity of a cure for the tax office
• Certification of the necessity of a cure for the tax office