RheumCloud App: A Novel Mobile Application for the Management of Rheumatic Diseases Patients in China

This review summarizes the history, function, application, and achievement of the RheumCloud App as a novel smartphone application. This App reflects the development of the Chinese Rheumatism Data Center (CRDC), which provides not only a technical platform for the database and registry of rheumatic diseases (RDs) in China, but also a close tie between Chinese rheumatologists and patients with RDs. Throughout the past decade, CRDC has successfully built the world’s largest nationwide database for RDs. A total of 2074 tertiary referral centers consisting of 8051 rheumatologists participated in the registry. RheumCloud App, which is representative of the success of CRDC, has played a central role in supporting patient cohort registration, biosample collection, and patient education. Based on the data of the Rhuem-Cloud App, three national key research projects have been funded and a series of research papers have been published.