Types of Reviews

Cochrane defines a rapid review (RR) as "a form of knowledge synthesis that accelerates the process of conducting a traditional systematic review through streamlining or omitting specific methods to produce evidence for stakeholders in a resource-efficient manner."

In this context "rapid" should be understood as indicating urgency rather than swiftness. While the resulting RR can be a shorter process than a full systematic review it does not necessarily mean the process will be swift. Researchers attempting a RR should also understand that shortening an evidence synthesis process will necessarily result in tradeoffs of decreased quality and rigor.

Rapid reviews can take 6-8 months (varies on the streamlining or specific omissions determined by the research team) and input from at least 3 team members is needed.

Rapid reviews are useful for:

• Addressing an urgent or immediate health policy or clinical care information need (ex. during a pandemic)
• New or emerging research topics
• Updates of previous reviews
• Critical topics
• Assessing what is already known about a policy or practice issue
  • by using systematic review methods to search and critically appraise existing research

Limitations:

• Search is not as comprehensive
• Potential biases when cutting corners
• Can impact policy and practice but systematic reviews are still needed

Other names for Rapid Reviews: Rapid Evidence Review, Rapid Evidence Assessment, Rapid Systematic Review, Expedited Review, Rapid Evidence Summary

Tools

References