Can AI help you understand your pain?
Get initial information and guidance before coming in for a professional assessment.
An AI chat can give useful general information - but it doesn’t know you, and it doesn’t have the small details that completely change the picture in real treatment.
Recently we have all started using artificial intelligence for writing, or in other words - the chat we all turn to with our questions. Sometimes I feel like a human chatbot: patients ask me questions and I am expected to know everything on the spot. Just to be clear - my name is Gilad, a capable physiotherapist who still doesn’t know everything.
If you ask our friendly chat how to make back pain disappear, it will give you a million correct answers, but there will be one small problem. It doesn’t know you. It can’t know what you are going through at that moment physically - whether you had a hard day at work that meant prolonged sitting, whether you slept badly, whether you went back to something after a break. All these small details completely change the picture, and nobody tells them to the chat before it answers.
That is why the chat is excellent for discovering new things or for challenging it with far-fetched questions, but not for running a successful treatment process through it. There is an enormous difference between “getting general information” and “getting treatment that progresses with me week after week”.
So who knows more, the chat or the therapist?
Another point of similarity between the chat and physiotherapy is the quantity of information - every physiotherapist has their own knowledge and experience, rather like the chat has its knowledge (it has more, believe me). But how do we actually know that this knowledge is accurate for you? Perhaps the chat got it wrong? On the other hand, perhaps the therapist isn’t up to date on new techniques?
Perhaps they are set in their view even though the method won’t suit the patient? That is exactly why I first get to know the patient and only afterwards tailor the treatment plan. If there is no ready-made plan that fits, then we will create one for them - and that is exactly what the chat can’t do, because it doesn’t see how you move, doesn’t feel where your shoulder catches, and doesn’t remember what happened at the previous appointment.
What really makes the difference
The real difference isn’t the quantity of information - it is the relationship. I see how you actually move, rather than only hearing a verbal description of the pain. I remember what happened at the previous appointment, adjust the plan according to how your body really responds, and not according to a general answer that suits everyone. And when something isn’t working as we expected, I can change direction mid-course - rather than waiting for you to ask a new question.
In the end, there’s only the way that’s right for you. If someone had found a way to diagnose people without meeting them and match them to a successful treatment, I’d need to find another job. What you need is a therapist who fits you - one who listens, one you can message and who’ll immediately understand what you did wrong in the exercise. In other words: with any question about pain, backs, and physiotherapy - you’re welcome to talk to me.
Not sure if this is your situation? I’d be happy to give you a professional assessment and build a treatment plan that fits you.
Book a consultation call