BIOL 101 General biology courses.: Medical/health literature research using PICO format

1. PATIENT/PROBLEM -  What are the characteristics of the patient or population or problem that you are researching? IronMan Para Olympic Athletes
2. INTERVENTION - What is being done to or for this patient or population or problem? What are you recommending? skeletal system
3. COMPARISON -  What alternatives can be considered? sensory system
4. OUTCOME -   What are you trying to measure ? What are you recommending? athlete adaptation, speed, comfort, liimitations

•  what type of medical/health information are you looking for:?
  • therapy (treatment),
  • Diagnosis,
  • Etiology (identify causes for disease) ,
  • Prognosis (estimate patient's clinical course),
  • Prevention

You will find a variety of health and medical journal articles based on the type of research being conducted e.g.

Random Controlled Trials (RCT) , cohort studies, systematic reviews, meta-analysis, etc.  The best articles are the systematic reviews/meta analysis because the original data and methods have been reviewed again more closely.

PICO Examples

P: "US veterans"

i: "ultrasound screening"

C: compared to??

O: expected measurements

P: "Female athletes"

I " echocardiography"

C compared to??

O: expected measurements output