PICO process

The PICO process (or framework) is a mnemonic used in evidence-based practice (and specifically evidence-based medicine) to frame and answer a clinical or health care related question,^[1] though it is also argued that PICO "can be used universally for every scientific endeavour in any discipline with all study designs".^[2] The PICO framework is also used to develop literature search strategies, for instance in systematic reviews.^[3]

The PICO acronym has come to stand for:^[4][5]

• P – Patient, problem or population
• I – Intervention
• C – Comparison, control or comparator^[6]
• O – Outcome(s) (e.g. pain, fatigue, nausea, infections, death)

An application that covers clinical questions about interventions, as well as exposures, risk/ prognostic factors, and test accuracy, is:^[7][8]

• P – Patient, problem or population
• I – Investigated condition (e.g. intervention, exposure, risk/ prognostic factor, or test result)
• C – Comparison condition (e.g. intervention, exposure, risk/ prognostic factor, or test result respectively)
• O – Outcome(s) (e.g. symptom, syndrome, or disease of interest)

Alternatives such as SPICE and PECO (among many others) can also be used. Some authors suggest adding T and S, as follows:

• T - Timing (e.g. duration of intervention, or date of publication)
• S - Study type (e.g. randomized controlled trial, cohort study, etc.)