Evidence based medicine (EBM) is "the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of the individual patient. It means integrating individual clinical expertise with the best available external clinical evidence from systematic research."
Sackett DL, Rosenberg WM, Gray JA, Haynes RB, Richardson WS. Evidence based medicine: what it is and what it isn't. BMJ. 1996;312(7023):71-72.
PICO, sometimes known as PICOTT, is a common approach for formulating clinical questions.
P |
I |
C |
O |
T |
T |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Patient / Population |
Intervention / Indicator |
Compare / Control |
Outcome |
Time |
Type of Study or Question |
| Who are the relevant patients? Think about age, sex, geographic location, or specific characteristics that would be important to your question. | What is the management strategy, diagnostic test, or exposure that you are interested in? | Is there a control or alternative management strategy you would like to compare to the intervention or indicator? | What are the patient-relevant consequences of the intervention? | What time periods should be considered? | What study types are most likely to have the information you seek? What clinical domain does your question fall under? |
Also see our full EBP guide for additional details and alternative methods for formulating a question.
Includes tools for appraising, Cross-Sectional, Cohort, Case Control, Diagnostic, Qualitative, RCT, Prevalence, Economic Evaluations, Systematic Reviews, and more.
