Evidence Based Medicine (Mona): PICO

A well-formulated question includes the following elements:

• P - Patient/ Population you are about to study
  • Include the most important patient characteristics e.g. age, gender, disease or condition
• I - Intervention
  • Medication, Procedure, or Diagnostic Test
• C - Comparison
  • Alternative medication, procedure or diagnostic test; placebo
• O - Outcome
  • What we hope to accomplish e.g. relieve or improve symptoms; accurate diagnosis

FURTHER READING:

Geddes, J. (1999). Asking structured and focused clinical questions: Essential first step of evidence-based practice. Evidence-Based Mental Health, 2(2), 35–36. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/ebmh.2.2.35

Having formulated a structured and focused clinical question, it is helpful to create a chart of relevant keywords using the PICO format as in the example below.

Sample Question:

In elderly patients with rheumatoid arthritis, is tumeric an effective therapy?