The EBM Process: Formulating a Clinical Question
Form of The Well-Built Question
A “well-built” question has the following “PICO” components:
- P: Patient – specify the specific patient, a 55 y. o. f. with type-2 diabetes and microalbuminurea for example
- I: Intervention – identify the intervention, the use of ACE inhibitors for microalbuminurea
- C: Comparison – identify what the intervention is compared to, nothing or placebo
- O: Outcome – identify the outcome of interest, this could be many different things like, progression to gross proteinurea within 5 years, probability of requiring dialysis with-in 10 years, the quality of life, cost of care, number of hospitalizations, adverse side effects, etc.
Without a well-built, focused question, looking for helpful information in the literature could be an exercise in futility.