90-120 minutes
What you can expect to learn (learning outcomes)
This module will teach you to:
- Understand the difference between a rapid review and a systematic review
- Decide when a rapid review should be undertaken
- Identify ways of integrating knowledge users in a rapid review
- Recognize short-cuts in searching for and selecting studies to be included in a rapid review
- Recognize short-cuts in data extraction, assessing limitations of included studies, and synthesis stages of a rapid review
- Understand how to communicate the results of a rapid review
- Consider various supportive software tools available to help you conduct your rapid review
Authors, contributors, and how to cite this module
Module 13 has been written and developed by:
Candyce Hamel, University of Ottawa, School of Epidemiology and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Chantelle Garritty, University of Ottawa, School of Epidemiology and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Ottawa, Ontario Canada/Public Health Agency of Canada, Global Health and Guidelines Division
Barbara Nussbaumer-Streit, Cochrane Austria, Department for Evidence-based Medicine and Evaluation, University for Continuing Education Krems, Krems, Austria
Dario Sambunjak, Ruth Turley, and Oliver Willis, Cochrane Central Executive Team.
A full list of acknowledgements is available in the ‘About’ section within the module.
This module should be cited as: Hamel C, Garritty C, Nussbaumer-Streit B, Sambunjak D, Turley R, Willis O. Module 13: Rapid reviews. In: Cochrane Interactive Learning: Conducting an intervention review. Cochrane, 2025. Available from interactivelearning.cochrane.org/module-13.
Staying up to date
The module was last updated in July 2025.
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