PICO: A mnemonic device to help formulate a clinical question and search strategy by identifying key concepts.
P | Patient/Population/Problem | Describe your patient or the problem - be specific |
I | Intervention/Indicator | Treatment, cause, prognostic factor, etc. |
C | Comparison/Control | Compared to another treatment or standard of care (optional) |
O | Outcome | Improvement or negative effects? |
[ T : Timeframe, Type of Study, or Type of Question ]
What are the patient/population's most important characteristics?
Describe your patient specifically:
What do you want to do for the patient?
Other considerations:
What is the alternate intervention, if any?
What are you hoping to achieve, measure, or change for the patient?
Could also be the result NOT desired.