VM714

Use frameworks to avoid falling down the information rabbit hole.

Frameworks also 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 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:  what therapy 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)

PEO is another framework that is especially useful when investigating a prognosis or likelihood of developing a certain condition as a result of a pre-existing condition or exposure. 

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

Exposure:  what pre-existing conditions does the patient/population have or what has the patient/population been exposed to?

Outcome:  the outcome of interest; unlike in PICO, the outcome is almost always used in the search terms with the PEO framework