To help guide your research, it is important to have a well-stated hypothesis or question. A commonly used format for asking clinical questions is the PICO format. You may want to use the PICO format, detailed below, to develop your question.

 What does PICO stand for: P = Patient, I = Intervention, C = Comparison, O = Outcome

Example PICO Question:

What is the effectiveness of dental sealants in reducing the incidence of caries in children?

P = Children

I = Sealants

C = No sealants (the comparison is often implied, rather than directly stated)

0 = Reduced incidence of caries

Learn More:

This brief (14 pages) EBM Guidebook explains the basics of Evidence-Based Medicine and developing your clinical (PICO) question.