ETHICAL AND LEGAL BOUNDARIES OF DIGITAL INNOVATION IN REHABILITATION: A PERSONALIST FRAMEWORK FOR ASSESSING TECHNOLOGIES, DATA AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Abstract

Digital technologies are reshaping rehabilitation practice and can increase training intensity and facilitate outcome assessment. Their use also raises questions about legal classification, professional responsibility, data security, algorithmic transparency and clinical oversight. This paper defines the ethical and legal boundaries of digital innovation in rehabilitation and proposes a personalist framework to support implementation decisions. The method combined an interdisciplinary narrative review, doctrinal legal analysis and qualitative analysis of selected writings of John Paul II and professional ethics documents. The synthesis identified three levels of assessment: regulatory, clinical-bioethical and personalist. Neither novelty nor CE marking alone determines whether a use constitutes ordinary care, a non-standard clinical application, a medical experiment or a clinical investigation of a medical device. A nine-domain framework was developed to support implementation decisions. From a personalist perspective, technology is justified when it serves the integral good of the patient, does not reduce the person to a data profile and does not replace the therapeutic relationship.