Table 4.

Criteria to establish possible validity of counterintuitive data

Viability	Is the value consistent with clinical reality? Are the values even possible ones?
Consistency	If applicable (not always the case in retrospective analysis), is the value observed consistently, such as in our pain score observations?
Continuity	What is the context of the value - does it occur as a sudden aberrant value (a ‘blip’) or as one of increasingly aberrant values (a trend)?
Identity	Are the circumstances that produced the data truly identical so far as identifiable? ie, Would the same circumstances produce the same data results in a different database, institutional or cultural context?
Reproducibility	Is the value reproducible on repetition? While reproduction cannot be performed on retrospective data, can the values be reproduced on observation across different clinical databases or in the same database over ongoing time?
Sensibility	Even if it does not meet current clinical expectations, does it make potential sense in associated clinical context?
Curiosity	Does it drive the observer to seek alternative better solutions and pose questions for further research?