Thank you....to Rebecca Ajtai, Librarian at Briscoe Library, UT Health, San Antonio. This webpage is her amazing work and she kindly granted us permission to copy and re-use it. We are grateful.
PICO helps you to break a clinical problem into important concepts and formulate a searchable question that can be answered with research.
1. Begin with a clinical problem:
Your patient is a child with cerebral palsy and dysarthria.
2. Express the problem using PICO:
| Problem or Population |
Dysarthria |
| Intervention |
Speech Therapy |
| Comparison |
-- |
|
Outcome |
Improved pronounciation Stronger muscles used in speech |
3. Formulate the problem as a research question:
In a child with cerebral palsy and dysarthria, what types of speech therapy will lead to improved pronounciation and stronger speech muscles?
What are their most important characteristics?
Describe your patient specifically:
ALWAYS include this piece in your search.
What do you want to do for the patient?
Other considerations:
Almost always include this piece in your search.
What is the alternate intervention, if any?
It is less common to include this piece in a search.
What are you hoping to achieve, measure, or change for the patient?
Sometimes include this piece in your search.