Rapid Reviews

Rapid reviews use similar approaches to a systematic review but simplify or omit some components of the systematic review method to deliver evidence quickly to make decisions on emerging issues. Compared to a systematic review, a rapid review takes a much shorter time to complete. Although the approaches used in rapid reviews vary greatly, they usually take less than five weeks. They use methodological shortcuts (at the risk of introducing bias) to make them faster than a full systematic review. Search strategies, comprehensiveness, and the time range covered for a rapid review may vary. 

Steps for Conducting a Rapid Review:

• Rapid Review Guidebook: Steps for Conducting a Rapid Review National Collaborating Centre for Methods and Tools, McMaster University.
• Cochrane RR Methods The Cochrane Rapid Reviews Methods Group (RRMG) has developed provisional rapid review methods recommendations for Cochrane and others in the wider knowledge synthesis community to use. See:

Garritty C, Hamel C, Trivella M, Gartlehner G, Nussbaumer-Streit B, Devane D, Kamel C, Griebler U, & King V, (2024) Updated recommendations for the Cochrane rapid review methods guidance for rapid reviews of effectiveness BMJ 384, :e076335 doi:10.1136/bmj-2023-076335

• Cochrane Rapid Reviews: Learning Live webinar series
• Rapid Reviews from Evidence Synthesis Academy A free course on rapid reviews created by the Brown University’s Center for Evidence Synthesis in Health (CESH) in partnership with the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute.

Protocol Registration for Rapid Reviews: PROSPERO accepts registration of protocols that include at least one clinically or patient-relevant outcome. The Open Science Framework (OSF) platform  also accepts protocol registrations for rapid reviews (King et al., 2022).

For more information on Rapid Reviews:

Garritty C, Gartlehner G, Nussbaumer-Streit B, King VJ, Hamel C, Kamel C, L A, Stevens A. (2021). Cochrane Rapid Reviews Methods Group offers evidence-informed guidance to conduct rapid reviews. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 130, 13-22. doi: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2020.10.007

Khangura, Konnyu, K., Cushman, R., Grimshaw, J., & Moher, D. (2012). Evidence summaries: the evolution of a rapid review approach. Systematic Reviews, 1(1), 10–10. https://doi.org/10.1186/2046-4053-1-10

Stevens, A., Garritty, C, Hersi, M., Moher, D. (2018). Developing PRISMA-RR, a reporting guideline for rapid reviews of primary studies. Equator Network.

References

King, V.J., Stevens, A., Nussbaumer-Streit, B. Kame, C., Garritty, C (2022). Paper 2: Performing rapid reviews. Systematic Reviews 11, 151. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-022-02011-5