Abstract

Disruptive and undetermined events continue to give a new outlook to industries, including that of healthcare. Failure to continuously renew and standardize approaches among organized professions in healthcare, like physiotherapy, will continue to give more power to alternative health marketplaces, widen the knowledge-practice gap, reduce professional prestige and policy protection, slow down innovation, expand inter- and intra-professional conflicts, and increase health system inefficiencies. In light of these challenges, it is becoming clear that physiotherapists need to engage in a critically informed discussion to match the present practice of physiotherapy to that of the future, thereby transcending boundaries through creative thinking. Providing a roadmap to building the future physiotherapist, this paper will therefore attempt to address critical avenues such as professionalism/corporate culture, alternative health marketplaces, ever-changing health policies (including commercialization), the knowledge-practice gap, professional prestige, technological advancements, inter- and intra-professional conflicts, rising patient expectations, perception of the health system as inefficient, as well as threats and benefits from an increasingly aging population.

Key words: Physiotherapy, future physiotherapist, professional challenges.