EXSC 411: Special Populations & Conditions

Uses the component and process of the systematic review to produce information more quickly.

• A systematic review can take up to 12 months to complete, and they are  expensive, over  $80,000
• A rapid review usually takes up to three months and costs $25,000

Source: Cochrane Training. (2018, August 22). Difference between systematic reviews and rapid reviews

When to use it:  for new or emerging research topics, updates of previous reviews, critical topics, to assess what is already known about a policy or practice

Strengths: Useful for addressing issues that need quick decisions. Faster time to completion, typically done in 5 weeks up to 3 months

Drawbacks/Limitations: Risk of missing the significance of a theme that emerges from the literature. Greater chance of bias. Limited appraisal and assessment. The limitation is the literature review is NOT comprehensive

1. Form and refine the PICO question
2. Define parameters from inclusion and exclusion: time, language, gender, age, race, type of published material (RCT, cohort, systematic reviews....)
3. What resources will you use? PubMed
4. What will you use to appraise the quality of the information? CASP
5. For each article selected, analyze and summarize the information
6. The final narrative of the rapid review must include, at minimum, the following information:
   1. Study purpose/problem
   2. Relevance to the study: Why is this research necessary? Has it been done before? How this study will increase your knowledge?
   3. Implications/Methods:  What methods are most commonly used in previous studies? What are the most common outcomes? How the outcomes are analyzed? Is there a common population that is studied/not studied? 
   4. Limitations: What limitations/biases were present in the body of research?