Transforming Rheumatoid Arthritis Management: Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for Early Detection, Personalized Treatment, and Ethical Challenges

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is one of the several autoimmune rheumatic diseases affecting a large population of patients; it presents with multiple comorbidities and complications and is, therefore, difficult to diagnose, treat and manage. It is acknowledged that the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in different areas of RA research and clinical management provides hopeful approaches to these challenges. This review aims to give a systematic information about the existing studies that addresses the implementation of AI into the RA including early detection, prognosis, treatment planning and decision making, drug development, and patient counselling. Substantial emphasis is placed on ML, DL, and NLP, which are instrumental in increasing diagnostic reliability, refining treatment management, and increasing patient involvement. In term of drug discovery, AI enhances speed of identifying new therapeutic agents and repurposing known medicines in treating new disorders by exploring big data and predicting drug-target relations.