Background: Rapid reviews (RRs) have emerged as an efficient alternative to time-consuming systematic reviews - they can help meet the demand for accelerated evidence synthesis to inform decision-making in healthcare. The synthesis of diagnostic evidence has important methodological challenges. Here, we performed an international survey to identify the current practice of producing RRs for diagnostic tests. Methods: We developed and administered an online survey inviting institutions that perform RRs of diagnostic tests from all over the world. Results: All participants (N = 25) reported the implementation of one or more methods to define the scope of the RR; however, only one strategy (defining a structured question) was used by ≥90% of participants. All participants used at least one methodological shortcut including the use of a previous review as a starting point (92%) and the use of limits on the search (96%). Parallelization and automation of review tasks were not extensively used (48 and 20%, respectively). Conclusion: Our survey indicates a greater use of shortcuts and limits for conducting diagnostic test RRs versus the results of a recent scoping review analyzing published RRs. Several shortcuts are used without knowing how their implementation affects the results of the evidence synthesis in the setting of diagnostic test reviews. Thus, a structured evaluation of the challenges and implications of the adoption of these RR methods is warranted.
CITATION STYLE
Arevalo-Rodriguez, I., Steingart, K. R., Tricco, A. C., Nussbaumer-Streit, B., Kaunelis, D., Alonso-Coello, P., … Zamora, J. (2020). Current methods for development of rapid reviews about diagnostic tests: An international survey. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 20(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-020-01004-z
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