Library
Evidence Based Medicine Fast Fact #2
Formulating the Question
The
practice of medicine is patient-centered: one
patient at a time. You apply the evidence to
a specific patient, taking into account four
components:
1.
Your clinical experience & expertise
2. Patient preferences
3. Clinical research evidence
4. Available resources (1)
Begin
by formulating a focused clinical question using
the PICO approach: (2,3)
1. Patient or problem: Describe the patient
in terms of the most important characteristics
that affect the problem: disease, co-existing
condition, gender, age, race, etc.
2. Intervention, prognostic factor, or exposure:
Ask yourself: What do you want to do for the
patient? What factor(s) might influence the
patient's prognosis? What was the patient exposed
to?
3. Comparison (if applicable, not required):
Are you comparing two or more interventions?
4. Outcomes: What do you hope to accomplish,
measure, improve or affect?
Be as specific as possible as you formulate your question. I'm sure you've experienced retrieving hundreds of articles, and the time it takes to review them. It's actually faster to spend time up front developing your search strategy to retrieve the most relevant articles possible. Sometimes you may find that you need to broaden your question, depending on the available research.
The USF Reference Librarians can help you analyze your case, formulate a question, and develop a search strategy based on the best resources to answer your question. Click here for more information about how to contact a reference librarian.
(1) DiCenso A, et al. Implementing evidence
based nursing: some misconceptions [editorial].
Evidence Based Nursing. 1:38-40 April 1998
(2) Formulating patient centered questions,
retrieved 3/24/2003:
http://www.uic.edu/depts/lib/lhsp/resources/pico.shtml
(3) The Well-built clinical question, retrieved
4/7/2003: http://www.hsl.unc.edu/lm/ebm/question.htm
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