OBJECTIVES: To understand the value of digital health interventions in Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) through systematic review of published literature on digital health in RA. Specifically, to investigate what endpoints, outcomes and process measures have been assessed and identify any data gaps.

METHODS: Electronic searches of Embase, MEDLINE, the Cochrane Library and EconLit were undertaken for clinical, economic evaluation, cost/resource use, health-related quality of life and patient/physician perspective studies that included digital health interventions (e.g. telephone, digital technologies, web-based applications, and electronic decision support tools). Only studies involving RA patients aged ≥18 years, published 2007-2017 were included. Electronic searches were supplemented with hand searches of reference lists of included publications, conference proceedings and US, UK and EU clinical trial registries.

RESULTS: Electronic searches identified 1,337 studies. After deduplication and full review, 59 articles were included. Patient perspectives (n=37) and clinical impact (n=29) of digital health interventions were most widely reported; some clinical impact studies also reported quality of life outcomes (QoL; n=7). Few studies reported the costs (n=4), resource use (n=3) and cost effectiveness (n=1) of digital health interventions. Although few studies reported economic impacts, digital health interventions may reduce costs for both healthcare providers and patients.

CONCLUSIONS: Initial findings indicated patients are generally positive about using digital health interventions, but highlighted the importance of patient involvement in the development and implementation of new digital health interventions. However, there appears to be a paucity of economic and QoL evidence for such interventions; further research is required to fill these evidence gaps to fully understand the impact of digital health interventions in RA for patients and their healthcare teams.