The management of the COVID-19 pandemic is a challenge for Health Technology Assessment (HTA) methodology due to the need to formulate evidence-based recommendations in times of uncertainty in minimal time - for a large number of publications and with changing or even contradictory information. Living systematic reviews (LSRs) are systematic reviews that are continually updated, incorporating relevant new evidence as it becomes available. Since the COVID-19 pandemic fits all criteria to perform LSRs: (i) the Review question is a particular priority for decision-making, (ii) there is an high level of uncertainty about the existing evidence, and (iii) there is likely to be emerging evidence that will impact on the conclusions of the LSR, the aim of which is to analyze the role of LSRs as an innovative approach to HTA in recent years, and its impact on the management of the pandemic.

A systematic search of LSRs (published or protocols) was run on the main biomedical databases (Medline, Embase and Cochrane Library) in November 2020 and it was rerun in June 2021 without time limit. The results will be analyzed and classified by year and category (epidemiology, treatment, prognosis, symptoms, diagnosis and vaccines).

The literature research has returned a total of 187 publications. The LSR concept emerged in 2014, from which some LSRs began to be published, but an exponential increase has been observed in 2020 with 76 references of which 66 percent were focused on the SARS-CoV-2. By category, 81.8 percent were focused on treatment, 41.8 percent on epidemiology, 20.9 percent on rehabilitation, 15.1 percent on diagnosis, 10.2 percent on prognosis and 2.2 percent on symptoms until June 2021. There wasn't any LSR for vaccines and 28 percent was focused on other fields.

LSRs are particularly important during the COVID-19 pandemic, with research evidence emerging rapidly, current evidence being uncertain, and new research changing policy or decisions on health. The majority of LSRs published up to June 2021 were focused on the treatment of COVID-19.