Opportunities and challenges of digital health in rheumatology according to patients and professionals: a cross-sectional study

Background: Digital health is emerging as a powerful tool in rheumatology, yet routine implementation remains limited. Objectives: This study aimed to assess the needs and preferences of patients with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases and rheumatology healthcare professionals regarding the implementation of digital health. Methods: We conducted 2 parallel online cross-sectional surveys, 1 targeting adults with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases and another rheumatology professionals, featuring questions rated on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 = lowest and 10 = highest level of agreement) covering domains on contacting rheumatologists, app use, teleconsultations, digital health experience, digital assessment, app features, and impediments to digital health. Results: We analysed responses from 135 patients (86.7% women, mean age 48.6 ± 12.5 years) and 53 professionals (88.7% rheumatologists, 9.4% nurses). Overall, 24.7% of patients reported difficulties contacting their rheumatologist during flares, and disease-related app use was low (3.3 ± 2.6/10). More than half had limited digital health experience, and improving communication with professionals was the highest rated item regarding digital evaluation (8.1 ± 2.8/10). Among professionals, 75% considered digital health beneficial, but only 26.9% reported substantial training (≥7/10), and 53.9% reported minimal use of digital health tools (≤2/10). Treatment adherence showed the greatest agreement for remote monitoring (7.6 ± 2.2/10). Key barriers were poor integration of digital tools with electronic health records (EHR) (8.5 ± 2.1/10) and increased workload (7.7 ± 2.8/10), whereas lack of interest was the least relevant (5.1 ± 2.6/10). Conclusions: Patients and professionals show a high perceived value of digital health in rheumatology, but limited real-world adoption. Improving training, user-centred app design, and EHR integration may help bridge the gap between perceived usefulness and routine implementation.