Evidence Based Medicine

Evidence Based Medicine (EBM)

A. How to search MEDLINE/PubMed using the PICO format
(P: Patient or Problem; I: Intervention; C: Comparison; O: Outcome)
or
B. How to create a well-built clinical question:

A. CLINICAL CASE/SCENARIO: Briefly describe the case. A 10-year old child with sudden onset of generalized abdominal pain. You would like to give the patient an analgesic but concerned that it might mask the diagnosis of acute appendicitis.
PATIENT OR PROBLEM How would you describe a group of patients similar to you? What are the most important characteristics of the patient?
Acute abdominal pain
INTERVENTION, EXPOSURE, PROGNOSTIC FACTOR What main intervention are you considering? What do you want to do with this patient? What diagnostic test are you planning to do?
Analgesics
COMPARISON (optional) What is the main alternative being considered, if any?

OUTCOME (optional) What are you trying to accomplish, measure, improve or affect? (Making your search too specific could limit results. If no citations are retrieved, try deleting this option.)
Diagnosis of acute appendicitis
Publication type:
to PICO

B. The well-built clinical question is:
In a child with acute abdominal pain, will analgesics obscure the diagnosis of acute appendicitis?
Select Publication type: (Optional) Not specifiied Clinical Trial Meta-Analysis Randomized Controlled Trial Systematic Reviews (or Reviews) Practice Guideline
askMEDLINE