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ReviewNPJ digital medicine · 2026

Human-AI collaboration for dysphagia rehabilitation from effectiveness to implementation complexity: a systematic review.

Wenwen Yang, Sufang Li, Yifei Du … Xiaoxia Xu

Physical Medicine & RehabilitationReview

Patient-related factors are the main barrier to AI adoption in dysphagia rehabilitation.

Human-AI collaboration for dysphagia rehabilitation from effectiveness to implementation complexity: a systematic review.

Wenwen Yang et al. · NPJ digital medicine · 2026

Background

Oropharyngeal dysphagia affects over half of neurological and oncological populations, yet rehabilitation is constrained by a global therapist shortage that human-AI collaboration has not demonstrably addressed.

Methods

Here we report a systematic review of 31 studies (1012 participants; PROSPERO: CRD420251115997) evaluating AI-augmented swallowing rehabilitation in adults with oropharyngeal dysphagia, or in healthy volunteers testing systems designed for clinical application.

n = 1012 participants

61.3%

Results

61.3% of implementation barriers are patient-related, like digital literacy and cognitive impairment.

n = 1012 participants

More results

We synthesised findings by aetiology and collaboration mode, assessing risk of bias and certainty of evidence (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation, GRADE).

AI algorithm performance is rated at very low certainty, with validation largely confined to healthy volunteers.

“

Conclusion

Here we report a systematic review of 31 studies (1012

Post

Human-AI collaboration for dysphagia rehabilitation from effectiveness to implementation complexity: a systematic review.

Patient-related factors are the main barrier to AI adoption in dysphagia rehabilitation.

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