Five years of the Digital Rheumatology Network: insights and future directions

To outline Digital Rheumatology Network (DRN)'s activities, trends, and achievements over the past 5 years and to highlight concrete implementations and future directions in digital rheumatology.

This article reviews the evolution of DRN activities, such as podcasts, webinars, research awards, start-up pitches, and the Digital Rheumatology Days (DRD) conference content including trends in the field.

The DRD conference has evolved from a 2019 in-person event to a hybrid format by 2021, with themes progressing from general eHealth to digital therapeutic programmes, remote patient monitoring, and various artificial intelligence (AI) applications such as for disease prediction, digital biomarkers, or large language models. Workshops on app development, coding, machine learning, large language models, and digital pathways have fostered multidisciplinary engagement. DRD participants include rheumatologists, nurses, patients, researchers, and industry or start-up representatives. Social media engagement, podcasts, and DRN's presence at European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) and American College of Radiology (ACR) have expanded its reach. As a major achievement, DRN has fostered digital literacy among various stakeholders over the past years while also raising awareness and promoting cross-disciplinary collaborations. Key trends include the expansion and implementation of AI algorithms in clinical pathways, disease-specific remote monitoring, and digital therapeutic programmes, with a focus on evidence, adoption, and implementation in clinical practice.

DRN has become a catalyst for digital health innovation in rheumatology, connecting medical knowledge and technical understanding, fostering collaboration, and thus driving the adoption of digital tools. Moving forward, DRN will continue to accompany digital transformation and promote digital literacy.