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A Common Wealth of

Population Health & Primary Care Information

P.I.C.O. Model

Asking a well-built question and paying attention to the "five A's of the evidence cycle, Assess, Ask, Acquire, Appraise and Apply are keys to Evidence Based Practice in clinic.

Before searching for EBM materials it is helpful to frame your question using the P.I.C.O. method. 

  • Patient, Population, or Problem
  • Intervention, Prognostic factor, or Exposure
  • Comparison or Intervention (if appropriate)
  • Outcome

You should also ask what type of question are you asking - diagnosis, etiology, therapy, prevention, or harm?

This project has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under Contract No. HHS-N-276-2011-00004-C with the University of Maryland Baltimore.