What are PICO elements in systematic review - Pubrica
                     WHAT ARE THE PICO 
 ELEMENTS IN  
SYSTEMATIC 
REVIEW
An Academic presentation by
Dr. Nancy Agens, Head, Technical Operations, 
Pubrica  Group:
www.pubrica.com
Email: [email protected]
Today's 
Discussion
Outlin In brief
e
Introductio
n  PICO
Conclusion
In 
Brief
The PICO framework is used in evidence-based practice and especially  
in evidence-based medicine to formulate a clinical or healthcare related  
question. In a systematic review, the PICO framework is also used to  
develop literature search strategies to ensure the comprehensive and  
bias-free searches. The Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of  
Interventions mentioned using the PICO framework as a model for  
developing a review question, thus ensures that the relevant 
components  of the question are well defined.
Introductio
n
A systematic review is a method supporting evidence-based practices and healthcare
decisions primarily through quantitative approach.
The crucial factor for a systematic review is a comprehensive search process as it can 
 be viewed as preventing the risk of bias and thus providing quality representation of  
available research.
Current research investigation process mainly focuses on different methods to ensure 
 the comprehensive and bias-free searches for quantitative systematic reviews.
Through devising a search strategy, a search tool has been used in organizing 
 framework to list terms in the search questions.
Contd..
The PICO framework focuses on the Population, Intervention, Comparison and 
 Outcomes.
It is a commonly used tool quantitative systematic review to identify different 
 components of clinical evidence for a systematic review, and the Cochrane  
Collaboration recognizes it.
A systematic review question typically focused on narrow parameters and usually 
 fitted into the PICO question format.
Contd
..
Figure 1: 
PICO
PIC
O
P – Patient | Population | Problem
Most important characteristics of patients. Examples: Gender, age, and disease or condition.
I – Intervention or exposure
Main intervention. Examples: Drug treatment, diagnostic and screening test.
C – Comparison or Control
Main alternative. Examples: Standard therapy, placebo, no treatment and gold standard.
O – Outcome measures
PICO can be used along with the variant such as PICOS (S-Study design), PICOC (C- 
 Context), and PICOT (T-timeframe).
Contd..
Table 1: 
Search  
Strategy
Contd
..
Conclusio
n
The PICO model was developed to help structure a well-built clinical question and 
 enable a literature search of relevant citations.
Since its introduction, it has played an essential role as a conceptualizing model 
for
evidence-based medicine.
The PICO framework will also help in reducing the time and retrieving related  
documents, thus ensures bias-free quality systematic review, and it also helps to 
 determine the transparency of evidence synthesis results and findings.
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