PICOT format

· Formulate a clinical question using the PICOT format (the sequence of PICOT needs to be followed)

· P: Patient Population (for example—Did women ages 20-40 with DMII) 

· I: Intervention (what was done to fix this issue) (for example—who were prescribed insulin)

· C: Comparison intervention or group (for example—compared to those who were prescribed oral diabetic medications)

· O: Outcome (show better blood glucose management) 

· T: Time (for example—over a 1 year period of time, over a 6 month period of time, over a 3 day period of time)

· Sample sequence:  "In acute care hospitals (patient population), how does having a rapid response team (intervention) compared with not having a response team (comparison) affect the number of cardiac arrests (outcome) during a three-month period (time)?"

 So, using the example above, you would “plug in” your information like this:

Did women ages 20-40 with DMII (P) who were prescribed insulin (I) compared to those who were prescribed oral diabetic medications (C) show better blood glucose management (O) over a 6 month period of time (T)?