
ACADEMY OF PROSTHODONTICS
EVIDENCE BASED DENTISTRY SESSION Friday, May 16th 2008
FOCUS ON APPLICATION OF THE EVIDENCE
Drs. Clark Stanford and Alan Carr led a morning session designed to assist participants in their understanding of how to construct a PICO question. For those less familiar with the term "PICO", the construct consists of the following:
} Patient, Population or Problem
◦ What are the characteristics of the patient or population?
◦ What is the condition or disease you are interested in?
} Intervention or exposure
◦ What do you want to do with this patient (e.g. treat, diagnose, observe)?
} Comparison
◦ What is the alternative to the intervention (e.g. placebo, different drug, surgery)?
} Outcome
◦ What are the relevant outcomes (e.g. morbidity, death, complications)?
Patient scenarios were reviewed by groups who put this methodology into action.
Reference articles have been provided:
PICO-EBD Overview ---- a PowerPoint presentation by Dr.Clark M. Stanford, DDS, Ph.D., Associate Dean for Research and Centennial Fund Professor for Clinical Research, The University of Iowa.
Review Article: Primer: demystifying risk?understanding and communicating medical risks
Article: Hierarchy of evidence: a framework for ranking evidence evaluating healthcare interventions
Article: Perils, Pitfalls, And Possibilities In Talking About Medical Risk
Article: Explaining risks: turning numerical data into meaningful pictures
Article: Understanding and overcoming the barriers of implementing patient decision aids in clinical practice