What are the best methodologies for rapid reviews of the research evidence for evidence-informed decision making in health policy and practice: a rapid review

Haby et al. Health Research Policy and Systems (2016) 14:83 DOI 10.1186/s12961-016-0155-7 REVIEW Open Access What are the best methodologies for rapid reviews of the research evidence for evidence-informed decision making in health policy and practice: a rapid review Michelle M. Haby1,2*, Evelina Chapman3, Rachel Clark4, Jorge Barreto5, Ludovic Reveiz6 and John N. Lavis7,8 Abstract Background: Rapid reviews have the potential to overcome a key barrier to the use of research evidence in decision making, namely that of the lack of timely and relevant research. This rapid review of systematic reviews and primary studies sought to answer the question: What are the best methodologies to enable a rapid review of research evidence for evidence-informed decision making in health policy and practice? Methods: This rapid review utilised systematic review methods and was conducted according to a pre-defined protocol including clear inclusion criteria (PROSPERO registration: CRD42015015998). A comprehensive search strategy was used, including published and grey literature, written in English, French, Portuguese or Spanish, from 2004 onwards. Eleven databases and two websites were searched. Two review authors independently applied the eligibility criteria. Data extraction was done by one reviewer and checked by a second. The methodological quality of included studies was assessed independently by two reviewers. A narrative summary of the results is presented. Results: Five systematic reviews and one randomised controlled trial (RCT) that investigated methodologies for rapid reviews met the inclusion criteria. None of the systematic reviews were of sufficient quality to allow firm conclusions to be made. Thus, the findings need to be treated with caution. There is no agreed definition of rapid reviews in the literature and no agreed methodology for conducting rapid reviews. While a wide range of ‘shortcuts’ are used to make rapid reviews faster than a full systematic review, the included studies found little empirical evidence of their impact on the conclusions of either rapid or systematic reviews. There is some evidence from the included RCT (that had a low risk of bias) that rapid reviews may improve clarity and accessibility of research evidence for decision makers. Conclusions: Greater care needs to be taken in improving the transparency of the methods used in rapid review products. There is no evidence available to suggest that rapid reviews should not be done or that they are misleading in any way. We offer an improved definition of rapid reviews to guide future research as well as clearer guidance for policy and practice. Keywords: Rapid reviews, Knowledge translation, Evidence-informed decision-making, Research uptake, Health policy * Correspondence: 1 Department of Chemical and Biological Sciences, Universidad de Sonora, Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico 2 Centre for Health Policy, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s). 2016 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. Haby et al. Health Research Policy and Systems (2016) 14:83 Background In May 2005, the World Health Assembly called on WHO Member States to “establish or strengthen mechanisms to transfer knowledge in support of evidence-based public health and healthcare delivery systems, and evidence-based health-related policies” [1]. Knowledge translation has been defined by WHO as: “the synthesis, exchange, and application of knowledge by relevant stakeholders to accelerate the benefits of global and local innovation in strengthening health systems and improving people’s health” [2]. Knowledge translation seeks to address the challenges to the use of scientific evidence in order to close the gap between the evidence generated and decisions being made. To achieve better translation of knowledge from research into policy and practice it is important to be aware of the barriers and facilitators that influence the use of research evidence in health policy and practice decision making [3–8]. The most frequently reported barriers to evidence uptake are poor access to good quality relevant research and lack of timely and relevant research output [7, 9]. The most frequently reported facilitators are collaboration between researchers and policymakers, improved relationships and skills [7], and research that accords with the beliefs, values, interests or practical goals and strategies of decision makers [10]. In relation to access to good quality relevant research, systematic reviews are considered the gold standard and these are used as a basis for products such as practice guidelines, health technology assessments, and evidence briefs for policy [11–14]. However, there is a growing need to provide these evidence products faster and with the needs of the decision-maker in mind, while also maintaining credibility and technical quality. This should help to overcome the barrier of lack of timely and relevant research, thereby facilitating their use in decision making. With this in mind, a range of methods for rapid reviews of the research evidence have been developed and put into practice [15–18]. These often include modifications to systematic review methods to make them faster than a full systematic review. Some examples of modifications that have been made include (1) a more targeted research question/reduced scope; (2) a reduced list of sources searched, including limiting these to specialised sources (e.g. of systematic reviews, economic evaluations); (3) articles searched in the English language only; (4) reduced timeframe of search; (5) exclusion of grey literature; (7) use of search tools that make it easier to find literature; and (7) use of only one reviewer for study selection and/or data extraction. Given the emergence of this approach, it is important to develop a knowledge base regarding the implications of such ‘shortcuts’ on the strength of evidence being delivered to decision makers. At the time of conducting this review, Page 2 of 12 we were not aware of any high quality systematic reviews on rapid reviews and their methods. It is important to note that a range of terms have been used to describe rapid reviews of the research evidence, including evidence summaries, rapid reviews, rapid syntheses, and brief reviews, with (...truncated)