Two new articles to highlight: Using rapid reviews: an example from a study conducted to inform policy-making. O’Leary DF et al. Research Methodology December 2016 Methods for Developing Evidence Reviews in Short Periods of Time: A Scoping Review. Abou-Setta AM et al. PLoS ONE 11(12) 2016 I’ll have to do a reference trawl of the latter one as it reports: Studies comparing the conclusions of … Continue reading Two new articles and one non-surprise – RRs and SRs give similar results

Two new articles: Rapid reviews with health-technology assessments in reimbursement systems – an examination of Ireland as a case study. Murphy A et al. Global & Regional Health Technology Assessment | Vol. 4 | Issue 1 – 2017 Assessing the validity of abbreviated literature searches for rapid reviews: protocol of a non-inferiority and meta-epidemiologic study. Nussbaumer-Streit B et al. Systematic Reviews 2016 5:197 Continue reading Rapid HTAs and a research protocol

Two new articles to report, both linked to supporting policy. Designing a rapid response program to support evidence-informed decision-making in the Americas region: using the best available evidence and case studies Haby MM et al. Implementation Science 2016 11:117 Conclusions: When designing a new rapid response program, greater attention needs to be given to specifying the rapid review methods and reporting these in sufficient detail to allow … Continue reading Supporting policy – rapid response and rapid evidence maps

The International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care has recently published two new articles on rapid reviews: 1) Using the amstar checklist for rapid reviews: is it feasible? Int J Technol Assess Health Care. 2016 Oct 18:1-8. Mattivi JT, Buchberger B. Conclusions: With some adjustments, AMSTAR can be used as a checklist for rapid reviews to describe methodological restrictions in comparison to systematic reviews and to … Continue reading Two new papers

Expediting evidence synthesis for healthcare decision-making: exploring attitudes and perceptions towards rapid reviews using Q methodology. Kelly SE et al. PeerJ 4:e2522 A lovely paper that explores attitudes towards rapid reviews.  The abstract is as follows: Background Rapid reviews expedite the knowledge synthesis process with the goal of providing timely information to healthcare decision-makers who want to use evidence-informed policy and practice approaches. A range … Continue reading Expediting evidence synthesis for healthcare decision-making: exploring attitudes and perceptions towards rapid reviews using Q methodology

The contribution of databases to the results of systematic reviews: a cross-sectional study. Hartling L et al. BMC Medical Research Methodology. 2016 16:127 How much searching should be undertaken when performing a systematic review? There have been a number of other articles exploring this, many captured on this site (Restricting the databases (or language) for a search) but as the authors of this paper point … Continue reading New article: The contribution of databases to the results of systematic reviews

The use of rapid review methods in health technology assessments: 3 case studies Kaltenthaler E et al. BMC Medical Research Methodology 2016 16:108   Abstract Background Rapid reviews are of increasing importance within health technology assessment due to time and resource constraints. There are many rapid review methods available although there is little guidance as to the most suitable methods. We present three case studies … Continue reading The use of rapid review methods in health technology assessments: 3 case studies

User survey finds rapid evidence reviews increased uptake of evidence by Veterans Health Administration leadership to inform fast-paced health-system decision-making. Peterson K et al. Systematic Reviews 2016 5:132 Background To provide evidence synthesis for faster-paced healthcare decision-making, rapid reviews have emerged as a streamlined alternative to standard systematic reviews. In 2012, the Veterans Affairs Evidence-based Synthesis Program (VA ESP) added rapid reviews to support Veterans … Continue reading New article: User survey finds rapid evidence reviews increased uptake of evidence by Veterans Health Administration leadership to inform fast-paced health-system decision-making

Implications of applying methodological shortcuts to expedite systematic reviews: three case studies using systematic reviews from agri-food public health. Pham MT et al. Res Synth Methods. 2016 Jun 10. This paper looks really interesting/important.  I’ve not really got time to read and digest is properly but this image shows why I’m so excited by it: As you can see it’s taking an initial SR and … Continue reading Implications of applying methodological shortcuts to expedite systematic reviews

Use of Knowledge Synthesis and Translation Methodologies as the Basis of an Evidence Informed Evaluation of Mycobacterium avium ssp. paratuberculosis. Waddell LA. A Thesis presented to The University of Guelph. 2016   Also added to List of articles: Non-medical rapid review papers Continue reading New article: Use of Knowledge Synthesis and Translation Methodologies as the Basis of an Evidence Informed Evaluation of Mycobacterium avium ssp. paratuberculosis.