AHRQ PiCMe Assessment
Use the AHRQ PiCMe framework to systematically assess a research gap across 6 dimensions.
HARD-GATE
- Input must be a GapRecord with status: "complete"
- All 6 dimensions (P/I/C/M/E + overall verdict) must be completed; none may be skipped
- Each dimension must have an independent score (1-5) and a textual rationale
- overall_verdict must be one of "strong" | "moderate" | "weak"
Pipeline
- Precondition check: verify completeness of the input GapRecord; confirm the domain field is valid
- Population (P): identify the target population/system/dataset the gap concerns; assess clarity of definition (1-5)
- Intervention (I): identify the proposed intervention/method/solution; assess operationalizability (1-5)
- Comparator (C): identify the comparison baseline (existing SOTA, no intervention, alternative approach); assess baseline reasonableness (1-5)
- Metrics (M): identify the evaluation metrics; assess their measurability and relevance (1-5)
- Evidence (E): assess the strength of existing evidence supporting the existence of the gap (1-5)
- Overall verdict: judge overall quality from the mean of the 5 dimensions (strong ≥ 3.5 / moderate 2.5-3.4 / weak < 2.5); generate a research question draft
- Output: return the PiCMeAssessment object
Output Format
{
"gap_id": "gap_001",
"dimensions": {
"population": { "score": 4, "description": "Target population description", "rationale": "..." },
"intervention": { "score": 3, "description": "Intervention/method description", "rationale": "..." },
"comparator": { "score": 3, "description": "Comparison baseline description", "rationale": "..." },
"metrics": { "score": 4, "description": "Evaluation metric description", "rationale": "..." },
"evidence": { "score": 4, "description": "Evidence strength description", "rationale": "..." }
},
"mean_score": 3.6,
"overall_verdict": "strong",
"research_question_draft": "Research question draft (1 sentence)",
"improvement_suggestions": ["Suggestion 1", "Suggestion 2"]
}