The Network for Evidence-Based Medicine (EbM Network) has awarded the prestigious David Sackett Award 2025 to Barbara Nußbaumer-Streit and the Cochrane Rapid Reviews Methods Group. The international working group including Gerald Gartlehner, Ursula Griebler, Lisa Affengruber, Irma Klerings, and Sandra Hummel, is being recognized for its outstanding contributions to the advancement of rapid review methodologies.
Systematic reviews are the gold standard in evidence-based medicine, but they often take years to complete. Rapid reviews streamline this process to provide evidence-based answers more quickly – an essential advantage for time-sensitive decision-making, such as during a pandemic.
Rapid Reviews as a Research Focus
The award-winning research was carried out at the University for Continuing Education Krems. Prof. Dr. Barbara Nußbaumer-Streit, Co-Director of Cochrane Austria and Professor at the Department for Evidence-Based Medicine and Evaluation, leads the international Rapid Reviews Methods Group, which includes experts from Austria, Canada, the United States, and Ireland. The researchers earned particular recognition through numerous publications in high-impact journals such as the British Medical Journal. Their work helped establish minimum standards for rapid reviews. The frequent citation of their Rapid Review guideline highlights the strong need for methodological guidance. The team is currently developing a comprehensive Cochrane Handbook for Rapid Reviews and exploring the use of artificial intelligence to improve the efficiency of the review process.
Eva Buchholz, Tim Mathes (award presentation speech) and Barbara Nußbaumer-Streit
By awarding the David Sackett Prize, the EbM Network honors the vital role of methodological innovation in supporting well-founded and practice-oriented decision-making in medicine.
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