Overview
Rapid reviews are necessitated by time-sensitive decisions — a policy decision needs an evidence brief by next week, not a systematic review in 18 months. The methodological challenge is making the right concessions: a rapid review can limit database searching (fewer databases, no grey literature), limit screening (single screener, no dual check), and limit synthesis (descriptive rather than meta-analytic). But these concessions have a cost — confidence in the completeness of the evidence is lower, and the review must communicate this honestly rather than presenting rapid review findings with the confidence language appropriate for a full systematic review.
The Rapid Evidence Review Framework makes explicit methodological concessions, documents the limitations they introduce, and produces an evidence brief calibrated to the confidence level that abbreviated methods justify.