Foreground Questions:
Foreground questions are questions that ask for specific knowledge to guide clinical decisions. It is the seeking of evidence to answer for clinical information related to a specific patient/problem, an intervention therapy. Using PICO(T) will help you focus on the elements of your question.
The acronym of PICO translates to the following:
Why should you use PICO(T)?
P = Patient/Problem
Description of the patient - describe some characteristics?
Gender, age, ethnicity. What is the primary problem, disease or condition?
I = Intervention
What do you want to do for the patient or problem?
Is there a particular intervention you have in mind in trying out?
C = Comparison
Are there standard or alternative treatments that you can compare with to the intervention?
*Not all clinical questions will have a comparison*
O = Outcome
What do you hope to accomplish, measure, improve, or affect?
Example of a PICO question:
Does hand washing among healthcare workers reduce hospital acquired infections?
| P | hospital acquired infection |
| I | hand washing |
| C | no hand washing, other solutions |
| O | reduced infection |
NOTE: It is not required to include all aspects of your PICO search. If your search is too specific you might be restricting yourself to a limited number of results in your searches.