The term RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation) was coined in 1978 by Gabe Mirkin MD. However, this is not his discovery since the steps explained in it were already being applied before by physical therapists and physical trainers in the sports world, but it is attributed to Dr. Gabe for being the first to give it an official name.
Since then, it has evolved and changed a lot. The first change was made in the early 2000s, adding another step to be called PRICE, in which “Protection” was added as the first step to prevent the injury from further trauma that would worsen the condition. But this would not be the only change it would undergo.
In 2012 a group of experts conducted a study in which they showed that the ideal is to call the protocol as POLICE. In this new method almost all the steps are maintained but the “R” of “Rest” is eliminated by “OL” of “Optimal Load” which refers to the ideal workload to give mobility to the injured joint to start the recovery process as soon as possible.
The reason for this is because for the authors absolute rest should only be referred to the first minutes after suffering the injury, which can be perfectly considered as an obvious action in the protection process, but after a few hours it is necessary to start moving the joint to prevent the ligaments from contracting and hinder subsequent recovery.