New style rapid review reports launched by Public Health Wales

Public Health Wales’ Evidence Service has developed a new style of report, designed to provide a rapid overview of evidence in areas of interest to policy makers, giving them a robust baseline of current research from which to take action.

The reports are driven primarily by the stakeholder need and also the evidence identified. This pragmatic approach aims to rapidly assess the evidence base using a systematic methodology to produce a transparent overview of the secondary-level evidence landscape that can be used to inform further work. They are useful to help refine a broad question, as well as identify potential gaps in the evidence.  

Depending on the scope of the request, these can usually be undertaken within one to three months. 

Hannah Shaw, Principal Evidence and Knowledge Analyst for the Public Health Wales’ Evidence Service, said “These new agile scoping reports are an exciting addition to the extensive range of reports that we develop for policy makers. 

“They’re designed to provide an overview of the available evidence and because we work closely with stakeholders from the beginning these can be completely tailored to the stakeholders areas of interest. Whilst they don’t identify all available research or always determine the generalisability of findings to a Welsh context, they provide a valuable picture of reliable evidence on a topic and identify specific areas of interest for stakeholders to develop and inform their work.  

“Importantly, because they utilise the secondary-level evidence, which are generally pre-existing good quality systematic reviews, we are often able to provide the report much more quickly that would be possible for other types of evidence work.” 

The Evidence Service has already developed a number of these reports, and would welcome feedback from users, which can be sent to evidence.service@wales.nhs.uk   

Examples of the existing reports are as follows: 

Evidence base for risk and protective factors associated with smoking initiation and cessation: A brief scope of the literature

Universal free school meals scoping report

Identifying and predicting the need for end-of-life care: An agile review of the literature

Does universal access to assessment of need have an impact on child health and development inequalities: A brief scope of the literature