How to conduct systematic reviews more expeditiously?

Area of Science:

• Health Sciences
• Evidence Synthesis
• Medical Informatics

Background:

• Systematic reviews (SRs) are vital for healthcare decision-making.
• The time and resources required for SRs can delay critical information delivery.
• Timely evidence is essential for urgent decisions, such as during infection outbreaks.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore strategies for accelerating the production of systematic reviews.
• To identify methods that balance timeliness with the validity of review findings.
• To address the need for rapid evidence synthesis in healthcare.

Main Methods:

• Discusses process parallelization to expedite individual review steps.
• Highlights the potential of innovative technologies for automating time-consuming tasks (e.g., data extraction, translation).
• Examines modifications to SR processes, such as altering eligibility criteria or search strategies, while considering potential bias.

Main Results:

• Accelerated SR production can be achieved through parallelization and technological integration.
• Modifying SR processes may risk introducing bias, necessitating careful evaluation.
• Further research is needed to compare rapid reviews (RRs) with SRs and quantify the impact of methodological changes.

Conclusions:

• Expediting systematic reviews is feasible through parallelization, technology, and process adaptation.
• Maintaining the validity of SR findings is paramount when implementing time-saving measures.
• Evidence-based decision-making in healthcare benefits significantly from timely synthesized evidence.