Systematic literature search, review and dissemination methodology for the COVID-19 pandemic

Reynard, Charles; Darbyshire, Daniel; Prager, Gabrielle; Jafar, Anisa Jabeen Nasir; Naguib, Mina; Oliver, Govind; van den Berg, Patricia; Body, Richard; Ambroziak, Harriet; Carley, Simon

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: SARS-CoV-2 has caused healthcare systems globally to reorganise. A pandemic paradox emerged; while clinicians were desperate for information on a new disease, they had less time to find and evaluate the vast volume of publications at times of significant strain on healthcare systems. A multidisciplinary team undertook a weekly literature search capturing all COVID-19 publications. We also monitored free open access medical education (FOAMed) sources for emerging themes. Title and abstract screening pooled the most relevant papers for emergency medicine. Three summary types were created, a ‘Top 5 Flash Update’, a journal club and a rapid response to emerging FOAMed themes. From these summaries, three modes of dissemination were used: short written summaries, blogs and podcasts. These were amplified through social media. STUDY DESIGN: A retrospective review was conducted assessing the impact of this knowledge dissemination strategy for the period of March to September 2020. RESULTS: In total, 64 687 papers were identified and screened. Of the papers included in the ‘Top 5’, 28.3% were on epidemiology, 23.6% treatment, 16.7% diagnostics, 12% prognosis, 8.7% pathophysiology with the remaining 10.7% consisting of PPE, public health, well-being and ‘other’. We published 37 blogs, 17 podcasts and 18 Top 5 Flash Updates. The blogs were read 138 343 times, the Top 5 Flash Updates 68 610 times and the podcasts had 72 501 listens. CONCLUSION: A combination of traditional academic and novel social media approaches can address the pandemic paradox clinicians are facing.