SEARCHABLE QUESTIONS
Screen 3 of 4
One
of the most important steps in doing a literature search is
to analyze your question or topic, and decide which variables
need to be included in your search strategy.
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The
clinical case:The patient is a 64
year old postmenopausal woman who wants your advice
about hormone replacement therapy. She is having postmenopausal
symptoms, and wonders if she should begin taking conjugated
estrogens.
She's
heard a lot of good and bad things about estrogen
replacement therapy -- that estrogen can prevent broken
bones, but may increase a patient's risk of breast
cancer.
This
patient has a history of mild heart disease, and especially
fears heart diseases because her mother died of a
heart attack at age 50.
You'd
like more information about estrogen replacement therapy
before you decide what course of action to take with
this patient.
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Use the PICO method to identify
the key elements or most important pieces of your clinical question:
- P = the
patient population or problem
- I = the
intervention (therapy, test) being considered
- C = the
comparison (if any), and
- O = the
desired outcome.
What question would you pose
to address the case that was described above?
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