Executive protocol designed for new review study called: systematic review and artificial intelligence network meta-analysis (RAIN) with the first application for COVID-19

Nader Salari; Shamarina Shohaimi; Aliakbar Kiaei; Amin Hosseinian-Far; Kamran Mansouri; Arash Ahmadi; Masoud Mohammadi

doi:10.1093/biomethods/bpac038

Executive protocol designed for new review study called: systematic review and artificial intelligence network meta-analysis (RAIN) with the first application for COVID-19

Biol Methods Protoc. 2023 Jan 17;8(1):bpac038. doi: 10.1093/biomethods/bpac038. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Nader Salari¹, Shamarina Shohaimi², Aliakbar Kiaei³, Amin Hosseinian-Far⁴, Kamran Mansouri⁵, Arash Ahmadi⁶, Masoud Mohammadi⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biostatistics, School of Health, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran.
² Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
³ Department of Computer Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.
⁴ Department of Business Systems & Operations, University of Northampton, Northampton, UK.
⁵ Medical Biology Research Centre, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran.
⁶ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Windsor, Windsor, Canada.
⁷ Cellular and Molecular Research Center, Gerash University of Medical Sciences, Gerash, Iran.

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) as a suite of technologies can complement systematic review and meta-analysis studies and answer questions that cannot be typically answered using traditional review protocols and reporting methods. The purpose of this protocol is to introduce a new protocol to complete systematic review and meta-analysis studies.

In this work, systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-analysis network based on selected AI technique, and for P < 0.05 are followed, with a view to responding to questions and challenges that the global population is facing in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Finally, it is expected that conducting reviews by following the proposed protocol can provide suitable answers to some of the research questions raised due to COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; artificial intelligence; meta-analysis; network meta-analysis; protocol; systematic review.