SPIDER: AN OPTIMAL FRAMEWORK FOR RETRIEVAL OF BEST QUALITATIVE EVIDENCE (EDITORIAL)

Evidence-based practice, as a new paradigm for healthcare practice and medical education, has become
a core competence for the new century healthcare professionals and thereby, it is now possible for
healthcare professionals to easily retrieve, critically appraise, and apply evidence from primary and
secondary quantitative research. However, despite the increasing growth of qualitative research in the
field of healthcare and the importance of the use of evidence from qualitative research in clinical
decision-making and practice, the retrieval, appraisal, and application of qualitative evidence have been
neglected in the principles of evidence-based practice. This editorial briefly introduces the SPIDER
(Sample, Phenomenon of Interest, Design, Evaluation, Research type) framework as an alternative to
the PICO (Population/Problem, Intervention/Exposure, Comparison/Control, Outcome) framework for
systematic retrieval of qualitative evidence