Using PICO to align medical evidence with MDs decision making models

Abstract

Modern medicine is characterized by an "explosion" in clinical research information making practical application of Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM), problematic for many clinicians. We have developed a PICO-(evidence based search strategy focusing on Patient/Population, Intervention, Comparison and Outcome)-based framework for (indexing and retrieving medical evidence and we posit that the use of PICO allows for organizing evidence that is aligned with an MD's decision making model. We describe a study where medical students evaluated our PICO-based approach and results show that students are eager to apply EBM but are hindered by a lack of specialist skills. Students reported that the PICO-based framework for organizing evidence provided an intuitive way of accessing and evaluating evidence and would be useful for their clinical tasks.