Health Technology & Services Research, Technical Medical Centre, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands.
Pulmonary Medicine, Medisch Spectrum Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands.
BMJ Open. 2023 Jul 7;13(7):e072254. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2023-072254.
Systematic reviews provide a structured overview of the available evidence in medical-scientific research. However, due to the increasing medical-scientific research output, it is a time-consuming task to conduct systematic reviews. To accelerate this process, artificial intelligence (AI) can be used in the review process. In this communication paper, we suggest how to conduct a transparent and reliable systematic review using the AI tool 'ASReview' in the title and abstract screening.
Use of the AI tool consisted of several steps. First, the tool required training of its algorithm with several prelabelled articles prior to screening. Next, using a researcher-in-the-loop algorithm, the AI tool proposed the article with the highest probability of being relevant. The reviewer then decided on relevancy of each article proposed. This process was continued until the stopping criterion was reached. All articles labelled relevant by the reviewer were screened on full text.
Considerations to ensure methodological quality when using AI in systematic reviews included: the choice of whether to use AI, the need of both deduplication and checking for inter-reviewer agreement, how to choose a stopping criterion and the quality of reporting. Using the tool in our review resulted in much time saved: only 23% of the articles were assessed by the reviewer.
The AI tool is a promising innovation for the current systematic reviewing practice, as long as it is appropriately used and methodological quality can be assured.
CRD42022283952.
系统评价提供了对医学科学研究中现有证据的结构化概述。然而，由于医学科学研究产出的不断增加，进行系统评价是一项耗时的任务。为了加速这一过程，可以在审查过程中使用人工智能（AI）。在本通讯文章中，我们建议如何在标题和摘要筛选中使用 AI 工具 'ASReview' 进行透明和可靠的系统评价。
AI 工具的使用包括几个步骤。首先，在进行筛选之前，该工具需要用几个预先标记的文章对其算法进行训练。其次，使用研究人员参与的算法，AI 工具会提出最有可能相关的文章。然后，审查员决定每篇文章的相关性。这个过程一直持续到达到停止标准。所有被审查员标记为相关的文章都进行全文筛选。
在系统评价中使用 AI 时，需要考虑确保方法学质量的因素包括：是否使用 AI 的选择、去重和检查审查员间一致性的必要性、如何选择停止标准以及报告的质量。在我们的评价中使用该工具节省了大量时间：只有 23%的文章需要由审查员评估。
只要能够确保方法学质量，AI 工具就是当前系统评价实践的一项有前途的创新。
PROSPERO 注册号：CRD42022283952。
