Tools of Epidemiologic Research Protocol Creation: A Survey

Epidemiology is a rapidly evolving science with many hopes. It focuses on the study and analysis of the patterns, causes, and effects of health and disease conditions in defined populations, which justifies its complexity. Over time, many computer-based technical tools are born with the major aim of facilitating the study of new phenomena, the collection of masses of enormous data, the analysis of its data, etc. In this survey, we are interested in the creation of the epidemiological research protocol which represents the initial phase of epidemiological research. An epidemiological research protocol requires, at each stage of its creation, well-defined computer tools relating to the particular medical field of application, to a precise writing phase, etc. In this article, we propose a survey about the tools for creating the epidemiological research protocol. First, we outline the research challenges in conducting a scientific research. Then, we emphasize the importance of the research protocol in the case of epidemiological studies. We further detail the several components of the epidemiological research protocol. After that, we discuss several related works before reporting our contribution in the epidemiological research process. Then, we highlight the several aspects of research in epidemiology and related needed tools. We present some perspectives and innovations in the software tools for creating the epidemiological research protocol in an easy, safe and simple way.