VM603 Fall 2022

A framework can be useful because it can help

• Identify searchable parts of a question
• Refine results
• Focus review process to relevant results

Image sources: Disney Origins Podcast / Disney; Harry Potter Wikia / Warner Bros.

PICO Framework

PICO is a popular framework for clinical questions, especially those relating to therapy (intervention) effectiveness.  This framework helps identify discrete and searchable aspects of a situation where a patient or population has a certain condition and the outcome of interest is related to a therapy or intervention. 

Patient/Population:  how would you describe the patient or population of interest? 

Intervention or Interest:  what therapy, diagnostic test, or intervention do you want to investigate exposing the patient or population to?

Comparison:  (optional) (may be null)  what therapy or intervention do you want to compare the primary intervention to?

Outcome:  the outcome of interest; may be used in search terms or during results review

Time:  (optional)  may be a limiter or used during results review (the past 5 years, for example)

Study:  (optional)  may be a limiter or used during results review (preferring systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and RCTs over other study designs, for example)

Note that keywords developed related to Outcome are not typically included in the initial search strategies, they are used more for reviewing and focusing on results. If a large amount of literature is retrieved, however, keywords related to the Outcome of interest may be added.