A clinical question needs to be directly relevant to the patient or problem at hand. It needs to be phrased in such a way as to facilitate the search for an answer. PICO makes this process easier. It is a mnemonic for the important parts of a well-built clinical question. It also helps formulate the search strategy by identifying the key concepts that need to be in the article that addresses the question.
PICO or PICOTT
The type of question will often dictate the best study design to address the question:
Clinical findings: how to properly gather and interpret findings from the history and physical examination.
Etiology: how to identify causes for disease (including its iatrogenic forms).
Clinical manifestations of disease: knowing how often and when a disease causes its clinical manifestations and how to use this knowledge in classifying our patients’ illnesses.
Differential diagnosis: when considering the possible causes of our patient’s clinical problem, how to select those that are likely, serious and responsive to treatment.
Diagnostic tests: how to select and interpret diagnostic tests, in order to confirm or exclude a diagnosis, based on considering their precision, accuracy, acceptability, expense, safety, etc.
Prognosis: how to estimate a patient’s likely clinical course over time due to factors other than interventions
Therapy: how to select treatments to offer our patients that do more good than harm and that are worth the efforts and costs of using them.
Prevention: how to reduce the chance of disease by identifying and modifying risk factors and how to diagnose disease early by screening.
Qualitative: how to empathize with our patients’ situations, appreciate the meaning they find in the experience and understand how this meaning influences their healing.
