Currently submitted to: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Jan 22, 2026
Open Peer Review Period: Feb 4, 2026 - Apr 1, 2026
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
NOTE: This is an unreviewed Preprint
Warning: This is a unreviewed preprint (What is a preprint?). Readers are warned that the document has not been peer-reviewed by expert/patient reviewers or an academic editor, may contain misleading claims, and is likely to undergo changes before final publication, if accepted, or may have been rejected/withdrawn (a note "no longer under consideration" will appear above).
Peer review me: Readers with interest and expertise are encouraged to sign up as peer-reviewer, if the paper is within an open peer-review period (in this case, a "Peer Review Me" button to sign up as reviewer is displayed above). All preprints currently open for review are listed here. Outside of the formal open peer-review period we encourage you to tweet about the preprint.
Citation: Please cite this preprint only for review purposes or for grant applications and CVs (if you are the author).
Final version: If our system detects a final peer-reviewed "version of record" (VoR) published in any journal, a link to that VoR will appear below. Readers are then encourage to cite the VoR instead of this preprint.
Settings: If you are the author, you can login and change the preprint display settings, but the preprint URL/DOI is supposed to be stable and citable, so it should not be removed once posted.
Submit: To post your own preprint, simply submit to any JMIR journal, and choose the appropriate settings to expose your submitted version as preprint.
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
The Strategic Role of Physiotherapy in the Era of Artificial Intelligence: A SWOT-Based Survey of Professional Perceptions and Challenges
ABSTRACT
Background:
Background:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming healthcare by reshaping clinical decision-making, service organization, and professional competencies. In physiotherapy, AI offers opportunities to enhance efficiency, personalization, and interdisciplinary collaboration, while also posing ethical, educational, and governance challenges.
Objective:
Objective:
This study aimed to examine physiotherapists’ perceptions of AI implementation across professional domains, identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT), and to assess the influence of prior AI experience and knowledge levels on these perceptions.
Methods:
Methods:
An observational, cross-sectional survey was conducted using a 26-item online questionnaire structured within a SWOT framework. The survey included demographic data, 20 Likert-scale items, and two open-ended questions. Composite indices for Opportunities and Concerns were calculated, internal consistency was assessed with Cronbach’s α, and non-parametric tests with false discovery rate adjustment were applied. Qualitative responses were thematically analyzed.
Results:
Results:
Fifty physiotherapists participated, most reporting basic or no AI knowledge, while 52% had prior AI experience. The Opportunities Index showed excellent internal consistency (α = 0.93) and the Concerns Index acceptable consistency (α = 0.77). Overall, Concerns outweighed Opportunities (3.68 vs. 3.31). Main concerns included reduced human contact, insufficient training, and data privacy, while key opportunities involved administrative automation, training in emerging technologies, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Prior AI use was associated with greater concern about data privacy.
Conclusions:
Conclusions:
Physiotherapists view AI as a promising yet challenging innovation. Strengthening digital literacy, ethical oversight, and participatory governance is essential to ensure AI adoption aligns with human-centered physiotherapy care.
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.