Hi all,Great as it was for its time, PICO needs improvement for the present, especially when teaching basics to people.
“I" stands for intervention. RCTs are about interventions. Why then do we use PICO for non interventional studies? We waste breath and time explaining to those who want only a basic knowledge that intervention does not mean intervention it means exposure.
So “I” in PICO is not an appropriate word for cohort studies, whether longitudinal or cross-sectional. Piersante Sestini was the first, as far as I know, that drew attention to this awkward problem.
An alternative is Rod Jackson’s PECOT where E stands for the more generic “Exposure” and, additionally, includes the element of time which beginners sometimes overlook.
Make learning easier
Kev Hopayian
Scott Richardson MD told me in conversation at a EBHC conference in Vail, CO, that he came up with 'PICO'. He was trying to work on a mneumonic for how to structure the 'answerable question' and shopping at a grocery store...in the 'Mexican Food' Section. He spotted 'Pico' on a can of hot sauce. Eurika! (google
pico pica hot sauce). I found his recent e-mail:
[log in to unmask] That is the way I remember the telling of the story. Thank you. Britt
Date: Wed, 13 May 2015 17:20:13 +0000
From:
[log in to unmask]Subject: Re: History of PICO
To:
[log in to unmask]The earliest reference I can find seems to be this one, though I can't open the PDF to see if it refers back to something earlier:
Oxman AD, Sackett DL, Guyatt GH. Users' guides to the medical literature. I.
How to get started. The Evidence-Based Medicine Working Group. JAMA. 1993 Nov
3;270(17):2093-5. PubMed PMID: 8411577.
Bill Cayley, Jr, MD MDiv
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I think some of the most celebrated moments in human achievement should be those times when everything is going against a person and they are down in the dumps but they simply choose to get up. That's real greatness." -- Ryan Hall
Hi All,
I've just been asked about the origins of PICO and I have no idea! I'm hoping someone will know.
Who devised/first used the phrase and is there an original paper describing its application?
Best wishes
jon