I posted a tweet on the 18th March “For those doubting the value of rapid reviews then the COVID-19 pandemic should make you reconsider.” I pointed out that the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (CEBM) in Oxford had produced the COVID-19 Evidence Service and is producing multiple rapid reviews (RRs). The tweet finished with “We simply do not have time to wait 6-24 months for guidance“**. … Continue reading Evidence synthesis – Vive la révolution

At the heart of evidence synthesis is a fundamental question which seems unresolved and rarely articulated: Of the evidence produced in trials, for a given intervention, how much do you need to produce a fit-for-purpose evidence review? In my more naive years I assumed systematic reviews got all the evidence. Alas, that is clearly not the case. Therefore, if its not all the evidence it’s … Continue reading Sampling and evidence synthesis: how much is enough?

I’ve been trying to keep on top of articles relating to rapid review methods and the long list can be found here. After significant growth in papers over the last 8-10 years there was, last year, a drop-off in methods papers (that I could find). This year has been marginally better, but still not loads. Here are the ones for this year:   To HTA … Continue reading Rapid review articles, so far, in 2019

Rapid network meta-analysis using data from Food and Drug Administration approval packages is feasible but with limitations J Clin Epidemiol. Wang L et al.   Great to see this abstract!  Without the abstract I’m not sure how rapid ‘rapid’ actually is. Also, it’s unclear how close the results were, aside from the very nice ‘tease’ of: “Compared to an NMA including all unique trials, we … Continue reading Rapid network meta-analysis using data from Food and Drug Administration approval packages is feasible but with limitations

Last week I posted An interesting exchange on Twitter. In that I ended with this: When might: the largest trial suffice? when might a rapid review suffice? when might a systematic review suffice? when might you need to do a full systematic review, using all the data (including unpublished data including CSRs as seen with the Tamiflu work of Tom Jefferson)? This triggered further exchanges … Continue reading An interesting exchange on Twitter – reflections

Last week I presented at the JBI European Symposium in Cardiff, one part of the discussion related to rapid reviews.  Following that a Twitter conversation started: There were other messages in the exchanges but you get the picture!  A few observations: I’m still unsure if James believes we need all the data or not when doing an evidence synthesis. Assuming we don’t need all the … Continue reading An interesting exchange on Twitter

I spotted this news via the BMJ and I wanted to share as these (CSRs) are an important component of the debate around rapid versus systematic reviews. I have long argued that terms such as ‘rapid’ and ‘systematic’ are mis-leading and the CSR helps illustrate this point. Rapid – is a relative term and open to interpretation. I would see rapid as taking a day … Continue reading FDA to begin releasing clinical study reports in pilot programme

As mentioned previously we will start the build of our community rapid review system in early 2019. We’ve talked about it for so long now it seems like we just need to get on with it and hope we produce a system that people want to use.  We’re not sure of the likely delivery date, but it should take 4-6 months to build and test. … Continue reading A brief update