2 - How to define the questions

Summary

The practice of evidence-based medicine (EBM) begins with the formulation of a clinical question. Defining the clinical question forces you to think about what you really want to know. Clinical questions consist of three parts: the patient or population, the interventions to be compared and the clinically relevant outcomes. The clinical question can be about a single patient, or any group of patients. It can be narrow and thus specific, or it can be wide and sensitive. The intervention can be compared to nothing, to a placebo or to any other relevant intervention or interventions. The outcomes should be clinically relevant; all important outcomes should be considered. Spending time on the question helps the researcher focus on what is important. A well-defined question is a good starting point for finding relevant literature.

Introduction

In our practice, we come across clinical questions many times a day. These clinical questions may arise from several sources: the patient asking for information; your colleagues seeking advice; or from you, simply asking yourself what to do in a clinical situation. The question will often start off as open ended and poorly defined, such as: is propofol better than sevoflurane?

If you want to use an evidence-based approach to finding the answer to your question, your question needs to be well defined.