Table 1.

Breaking down the PICOT question can highlight mismatches between the question of interest and question being asked

	Your clinical or policy question	RWE study question
Population	Patients 65+ with type 2 diabetes	Patients 40–65 with diagnosis of type 2 diabetes measured in the 180 days prior to and including the date of treatment initiation
Intervention	Drug X	Drug X
Comparator	Drug Y	Drug Z
Outcome	Hospitalization for heart failure	Hospitalization with heart failure diagnosis as primary discharge diagnosis
Timing	On-treatment follow-up   Starts: Day after treatment initiation   Stops: End of treatment, switching therapies, death or disenrollment	Intention-to-treat follow-up Starts: Day after treatment initiation Stops: Death, disenrollment, 730 days after initiation

PICOT, Population, Intervention, Comparator, Outcome, and Timing; RWE, real-world evidence.