A well-built clinical question helps you begin searching for evidence-based answers. Good clinical questions can be built using the acronym PICO.

P - Patient, population or problem of interest

I - Intervention - therapy, diagnostic test, exposure, etc.

C - Comparison intervention (can be blank if no treatment is the comparison)

O - Outcome(s) of interest

For example, you may wish to answer, "What is the best way to prevent infection through hand-to-hand contact in the hospital - alcohol-based hand sanitizers or traditional hand washing?"  "Best" is subjective - so restate your question in the PICO format to get a clincal answer.

• P - Hospitalized patients
• I - Use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers
• C - Traditional hand washing 
• O - Control infection

The PICO format will help you translate your question from an initial broad topic or a specific individual patient's experience, to a concrete objective question that you can find clinical evidence to answer.