The four part structured question

In Evidence–Based Practice, the first of the 5 steps is Asking Structured Questions (you may also see this referred to as "Focused" or "Clinical" questions). Usually, this means foreground questions.

The "structure" is to break down what you need to know into four parts:

• The Patient or Problem (P)- the clinical condition and defining characteristics of the patient, population or problem area you're interested in.
• The Intervention (I)- the screening tool, diagnostic test, prognostic factor, treatment or causative agent you are considering.
• The Comparison (C)- what you would like to compare the intervention with (this could be another drug, standard practice or no intervention at all).
• The Outcome (O)- what you and your patient would like to achieve as a result of your shared decision.

This PICO structure is really useful in helping you to organise your knowledge needs because it records what matters about your current state of knowledge and helps you to match it up with the evidence you find.