Standing for Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome, PICO, is an easy way to focus your search. Translating a medical scenario into a concise and focused question will ensure that your search strategies are trained on finding you the most relevant answers to your query. Then, complete your search by limiting to the correct study type for your question and critically appraising the results.
For a more in-depth look at PICO and how to use it check out PICO: The Secret Ingredient to Clinical Research
PICO is best used for quantitative research and can accommodate most clinical research question types - therapy, prevention, diagnosis, prognosis, etiology, etc.
PICOT and PICOS are two alternatives that can add more specificity to your question; adding a time frame or study type to the search.
|
P |
Patients, population, problem |
Relevant description of the patient such as age or gender. Relevant description of the population such as geographic location. Relevant description of the problem, health concern, or medical issue. |
|
I |
Intervention OR Exposure (studying harmful risks) |
Intervention: treatment, diagnosis, methods, therapy, etc. OR Exposure: harmful environmental description |
|
C |
Comparison (optional) |
Alternative intervention methods OR |
|
O |
Outcome |
Desired results. Knowledge gained. |
|
T |
Timeframe |
How long will the intervention last? |
|
S |
Study Type |
Qualitative? Quantitative? Mixed Methods? |