A Study Protocol for a Comprehensive Evaluation of Two Artificial Intelligence‐Based Tools in Title and Abstract Screening for the Development of Evidence‐Based Cancer Guidelines
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Background: Conducting a systematic review (SR) is a time-intensive process and represents the first phase in developing a clinical practice guideline (CPG). Completing a CPG through the Program in Evidence-Based Care (PEBC), a globally acknowledged guideline program supported by Ontario Health (Cancer Care Ontario), typically takes about 2 years. Thus, expediting an SR can significantly reduce the overall time required to complete a CPG. Our recently published review identified two artificial intelligence (AI) tools, DistillerSR and EPPI-Reviewer that reduced time in the title and abstract screening in an SR process when developing a CPG. However, the consistency and generalizability of these tools remain unclear within or across different SRs related to cancer. This study protocol aims to evaluate and compare the performance of DistillerSR and EPPI-Reviewer against human reviewers for title and abstract screening (Stage I screening) in cancer CPG development. Methods: We will conduct a retrospective simulation study to evaluate and compare the performance of DistillerSR and EPPI-Reviewer across 10 previously published CPGs by PEBC. These CPGs include the five cancer types with the highest incidence (lung, breast, prostate, colorectal, and bladder). We will run 30 simulation trials for one CPG per AI tool. Primary outcomes are workload savings and time savings in Stage I screening. The secondary outcome is the percentage of missing articles among the final included articles. This informs the accuracy and comprehensiveness of the AI tools. Descriptive and inferential statistical analysis will be conducted to evaluate the outcomes. Results: This is a study protocol. The data presented in the tables are illustrative examples rather than actual study results, in accordance with the journal s standard structure. All data included in the final study will be thoroughly validated. Discussion: This will be the first study to investigate and compare the performance of DistillerSR and EPPI-Reviewer in Stage I screening of SRs in CPGs across different cancer types. These findings will inform the reliable use of AI tools in future cancer-related CPGs. The results from this retrospective study will need to be confirmed by prospective studies.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.169 | 0.285 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.005 | 0.006 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.007 | 0.010 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.008 | 0.007 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.006 | 0.004 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.006 | 0.007 |
| Open science | 0.004 | 0.004 |
| Research integrity | 0.009 | 0.008 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.131 | 0.030 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".