You can hone in on what EBP information to consult by:
1) Determining the type of PICO question you developed
2) Looking up the corresponding best type of study
To help formulate a "searchable" question, you can define different parts of your case using PICO. This will focus your research and help you make more effective decisions while researching.
Patient: What are the characteristics of the patient or population?
Intervention: What do you want to do with this patient (e.g. treat, diagnose, observe)?
Comparison: Is there an alternative treatment to consider (e.g. placebo, drug, surgery)?
Outcome: What are the relevant outcomes (e.g. morbidity, death, complications)?
Diagnosis: How to select a diagnostic test or how to interpret the results of a particular test
Prognosis: What is the patient's likely course of disease, or how to screen for or reduce risk
Therapy: Which treatment is the most effective, or what is an effective treatment for a particular condition
Harm or Etiology: Are there harmful effects of a particular treatment, or how these harmful effects can be avoided
Prevention: How can the patient's risk factors be adjusted to help reduce the risk of disease
Cost: Looks at cost effectiveness, cost/benefit analysis
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Type of Question: |
Suggested Best Type of Study: |
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Diagnosis |
Cross-sectional study; or prospective, blind comparison to gold standard study |
|
Therapy* |
RCT > cohort > case control > case series |
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Prognosis |
cohort study > case control > case series |
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Harm/Etiology* |
RCT > cohort > case control > case series |
|
Prevention* |
RCT > cohort study > case control > case series |
|
Clinical Exam |
Cross-sectional study; or prospective, blind comparison to gold standard study |
|
Cost Benefit |
economic analysis |
*Questions of therapy, etiology and prevention, which can best be answered by RCT, can also be answered by a meta-analysis or systematic review.
Meta-Analysis