Table 2 Key informant interviews: perspectives on review methods
From: Fit for purpose: perspectives on rapid reviews from end-user interviews
Element | Theme | Sample quotes [type of end-user] |
|---|---|---|
Literature search | It is okay to limit the search by database, journal, year, etc. as long as it is scientifically justified | “I’d probably be more comfortable with selecting top 20 [journals]…and just do the evidence review using those.” [guideline developer] “I would not expect things like looking for unpublished literature.” [payer] “you…probably you get 90% or 95% of the evidence with 20% to 30% of the searching” [provider] |
Abstract/full-text screening | It is acceptable to have single review of abstracts and full text | “To me that [single review] would be acceptable.” [research funder] “I think implicitly in these kinds of rapid reviews…you’re going to do a combination of looking at existing reviews so that will help catch stuff that you might otherwise miss with single review.” [provider] |
Quality assessment | Some assessment of literature quality is necessary | “I think that [quality assessment] should be included.” [payer] “it’s important that we probably would want some level of comment on that [quality assessment]” [provider] |
Data tables/extraction | Evidence tables are useful | “I think the most important part of an evidence review is always going to be the evidence tables” [guideline developer] “one part that we use a lot are of course the extraction tables” [guideline developer] |
Quality/strength of evidence | Quality/strength of evidence is important | “That [strength of evidence grading] would be very important.” [payer] “The strength of the evidence I always find valuable as well.” [provider] |
Summary tables | Summary tables or ways to present the results/conclusions in an accessible format are useful | “A lot of times you’ll do good summary tables, and that’s probably where I would look…” [payer] “The work development teams in our clinical programs are more concerned with what’s the summary of the evidence.” [provider] |
Future research recommendations | Future research recommendations are helpful for research development | “…what are the future research recommendations…99.9% of the systematic reviews all concluded more research is needed, so focus on exactly what are they recommending.” [research funder] |