Rapid reviews: Do they really save time and resources?

Introduction: Conducting full systematic reviews or health technology assessments (HTA) is time-consuming and costly. It usually requires between six months and one year to complete a systematic review, and at least one year to complete a HTA. Caused by the urgency of some questions, information is needed within a shorter timeframe. There are different possibilities to shorten the review process mostly comprising methodological restrictions. Our aim was to test the feasibility of AMSTAR, a tool to assess the quality of systematic reviews, for rapid reviews. Furthermore, we investigated the time needed for a shor…