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? |
What are their most important characteristics?
Describe your patient specifically:
ALWAYS include this piece in your search.
What do you want to do for the patient?
Other considerations:
Almost always include this piece in your search.
What is the alternate intervention, if any?
It is less common to include this piece in a search.
What are you hoping to achieve, measure, or change for the patient?
Could also be the result NOT desired.
Sometimes include this piece in your search.