M3 Practice Based Learning and Improvement Presentation Guide: Steps 2 & 3

• Is the request patient specific or general?
• If patient specific- what is patient’s diagnosis?  Pertinent medical information? Demographic information?
• Is the question being asked by true requestor or an intermediary for the patient? 

A background question is a general question about a patient population (patients with type II diabetes) rather about a specific patient.

Things to consider:

• Are there times where this treatment or medication should be contraindicated?
•  

• Most often the original question asked is NOT the most effective way of finding the answer needed/wanted.
• If adequate background information is obtained, the ultimate question is usually formed
• Once ultimate question is formed, confirm this with requestor (if possible) to avoid conflict with response.
• Use PP-ICO to create your question!

P – patient/population

P - problem

I - intervention

C - comparison

O - outcome

An example of a clinical question for this scenario would be:

• Does garlic (I) lower total cholesterol (O) in 50 year old Caucasian males (P) compared to placebo or standard of care(C)?

What if your research article doesn't have interventions? You can adapt PICO for exposures and index tests: https://www.cebm.ox.ac.uk/files/data-extraction-tips/blog-19.pdf

Clinical Question:

Does garlic (I) lower total cholesterol (O) in 50-year old Caucasian males (P) compared to placebo or standard of care(C)?