Testing PhysioBot, a Telegram bot by a Singaporean physiotherapist

So I was browsing the internet as usual and I came across this physiotherapy telegram bot called … PhysioBot. It is created (I think) by a Singaporean physiotherapist Edmond Yeo.

What is PhysioBot?

I am not sure what is the purpose of PhysioBot. Like, is it supposed to help patients clinically with their treatment or is it a knowledge-based resource for patients to gather information? I am not sure.

I also wasn’t able to find any website, etc on it. Based on its introduction, it’s a bot proficient to answering any questions relating to physiotherapy. It covers virtually all subdomains from neuromusculoskeletal, cardiopulmonary, geriatric, and orthopaedic.

Outside of clinical domains, it also invites users to ask questions on anatomy and physiology.

Can PhysioBot provide meaningful solutions for sciatica?

I just randomly picked sciatica cos it was first to popped into my head. I wanted to know how PhysioBot was able to potentially put me out of a job. My first prompt was:

“Tell me what I can do for my sciatica. Currently can’t bend forward and also can’t stand for too long.”

The response was fairly generic. It made six suggestions: stretching, strengthening exercises, ice and heat therapy, postural adjustments, physical therapy, and pain medication.

They were fairly brief and honestly, in my opinion, not quite helpful. For example, for stretching, its response was:

Gentle stretching exercises might help relieve tension in the lower back. A common stretch is lying on your back with your knees bent and pulling one knee towards your chest at a time.

It’s kinda meh. It also sounded very bread and butter AI response so I decided to run the same prompt through ChatGPT.

How does PhysioBot compared with ChatGPT?

ChatGPT, surprisingly, was a lot more thorough. I guess ChatGPT has a lot more resources. Maybe that’s why it was able to give a more comprehensive response. I would think PhysioBot, with subject expertise, would outdo ChatGPT.

One thing that ChatGPT did that PhysioBot didn’t was to give a brief description of sciatica. I think this could be helpful cos it does clarify the condition (or premise) that it is basing its response.

Sciatica happens when the sciatic nerve, which runs from your lower back down through your legs, gets irritated or compressed.

ChatGPT had eight recommendations: gentle stretches, heat and cold therapy, posture adjustments, movement breaks, over-the-counter pain relief, physical therapy, avoiding aggravating activities, and considering seeing a doctor or specialist.

Both ChatGPT and PhysioBot covered stretching, ice and heat therapy, posture adjustments, physical therapy, and pain medication. PhysioBot included strengthening exercises, which ChatGPT didn’t.

The recommendations by ChatGPT that were missing from PhysioBot included “Movement Breaks” or walking/moving every 20-30 minutes to avoid prolonged sitting, seeing a doctor or specialist, and avoiding aggravating activities.

ChatGPT provided better recommendation for stretching

I was surprised ChatGPT was much more specific in its recommendations. For stretching, it identified lower back and hamstrings as the two areas to target. PhysioBot did not identify which regions to target.

It also gave three stretches to try: piriformis stretch, knee to chest stretch, and cat-cow stretch. It was a lot more elaborated and specific than PhysioBot’s brief description of a knee-to-chest stretch.

What both AI got wrong

I was specific in my first prompt that I had pain bending forward. Both platforms recommended knee-to-chest stretch, which will involve flexing my spine. Should a patient follow their recommendations, it will likely make their symptoms worse.

Of course neither ChatGPT nor PhysioBot is meant to replace clinical care from an actual healthcare provider. Not yet at least. However, it is inevitable that patients will use it to figure out what to do about their pain.

Not all recommendations are evidence-based per se.

For example, cold was recommended by both AI. However, I don’t think cold is included in any major clinical guidelines for low back pain or sciatica. I could be wrong though.

The Lancet’s low back pain guidelines did include heat so I guess that gets a free pass.

Neither platform was explicit at communicating that over-the-counter pain medication is no longer recommended by most guidelines.

Job security for chiropractors with rise of AI

Thankfully, it seems AI still has some room to go before it can replace the role of healthcare providers such as chiropractors or physiotherapists. One of the implementations that could improve AI response to clinical queries is to get AI to ask the user questions instead. I think this will give better context and allow both ChatGPT and PhysioBot to provide more meaningful responses.

I also appreciate that DeepSeek is all the rage right now. Unfortunately (?), I have yet to jump on the bandwagon. If you do end up giving DeepSeek a shot with clinical questions, do let me know your experience and if I should worry about my job security as a chiropractor!