ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTION
PICOTT FORMAT
Patient or population
Defined by clinical condition and any characteristic which may significantly affect the outcome
of interest
Intervention or exposure
Medication, procedure, diagnostic test, questionnaire, time
Comparator or control
Placebo or current standard of care (therapy or diagnosis)
Outcomes
Patient oriented outcomes (morbidity, mortality, quality of life etc)
Surrogate outcomes (lab values, test characteristics etc, do not always correlate with clinical
outcomes)
Type of question
Therapy, diagnosis, prognosis, harm, etiology, quality of life, cost-effectiveness etc
Type of study
What is the ideal study to answer this question?
What type of studies do you realistically hope to find?