HLWIKI International (Dean’s wiki), see http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca/

Formulating an answerable research question using the PICO model (handout)

What is your question? Using PICO in health policy – November 20th, 2014

A presentation to Ministry Staff, Victoria BC (10:30am – 12noon)

Dean Giustini, UBC biomedical librarian, iSchool Faculty

“…My aim is to provide you with an information professional’s view

of using PICO to develop your research questions…”

SLIDE II

Information overload & why it is a problem

SLIDE III

Information requests trigger questions

In medicine, the PICO model is used to clarify question

And PICO helps to frame the question into four (4) parts:

Problem, person (patient) or population

Intervention

Comparison

Outcome

SLIDE IV

Scenario #1:

“…A physical therapist comes to see you about a 60yr old female patient recovering from a

stroke. She needs information about mobility training, and best practices in using walking aids

(such as walkers or canes) versus leg braces (orthotics) to stabilize ankle and leg strength so

the patient can learn how to walk again…”

WORK OUT YOUR OWN PICO:

P________________________________________________

I________________________________________________

C________________________________________________

O________________________________________________

HLWIKI International (Dean’s wiki), see http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca/

SLIDE V – SCENARIO #1

SLIDE VI

HLWIKI International (Dean’s wiki), see http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca/

Taken from: Davies KS. Formulating the evidence based practice question: a review of the frameworks.

Evid Based Libr Info Pract. 2011;6(2): 75-80.

SLIDE VII – SCENARIO #2

HLWIKI International (Dean’s wiki), see http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca/

SLIDE VIII

WRITE OUT YOUR OWN ECLIPSe FOR SCENARIO #2:

E________________________________________________

C________________________________________________

L________________________________________________

I________________________________________________

P________________________________________________

Se________________________________________________

(see appendix for completed ECLIPSe but DON’T PEAK)

SLIDE IX

SLIDE X

HLWIKI International (Dean’s wiki), see http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca/

SLIDE XI

SLIDE XII

SLIDE XIII

HLWIKI International (Dean’s wiki), see http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca/

SLIDE XIV

SLIDE XV

A good research question will be:

Linked to / result in policy change — linked to overall goals, plans

Relevant — will the answer matter? Answerable — can question be answered?

Clear — unambiguous, definite, objective

Worthy — is answer worth all of the work?

Applicable — generalizable

Appendix A

HLWIKI International (Dean’s wiki), see http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca/

Appendix B – A few good websites/articles re: public health & formulating questions

WEBSITES

AcademyHealth http://www.academyhealth.org HSRProj: Health Services Research Projects http://www.academyhealth.org/hsrproj The Campbell Collaboration http://www.campbellcollaboration.org/ Canadian Association for Health Services and Policy Research https://cahspr.ca/ Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA) http://www.cpha.ca/en/default.aspx Cochrane Health Promotion and Public Health Field (guidelines for reviews)

http://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/cochrane/activities/guidelines.htm Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Co-ordinating Centre (EPPI-Centre)

http://eppi.ioe.ac.uk

REFERENCES

Booth A. Clear and present questions: formulating questions for evidence based practice. Libr Hi Tech. 2006;24(3):355-368.

Kloda LA, Bartlett JC. Formulating answerable questions: question negotiation in evidence-based practice. JCHLA/JABSC. 2013;34(02):55-60.

Schardt C, Adams MB, Owens T, Keitz S, Fontelo P. Utilization of the PICO framework to improve searching PubMed for clinical questions. BMC Med Inform Decis Mak. 2007 Jun 15;7:16.

Wildridge V, Bell L. How CLIP became ECLIPSE: a mnemonic to assist in searching for health policy/ management information. Health Info Libr J. 2002 Jun;19(2):113-5.

HLWIKI International (Dean’s wiki), see http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca/

Appendix C – Sample list of databases used in a hypothetical transportation-related search

Appendix D – A view of the entire process of evidence-based practice