Research Question Design

The PICO concept is commonly used to formulate the clinical question. It is especially useful for questions that are about a therapy or intervention. PICO is commonly used when one intervention is being compared with another, or with no intervention at all.

The SPIDER tool can be used when dealing with qualitative research questions – that is, when the research is about attitudes and experiences rather than scientifically measurable data. It focuses less on the intervention and more on the design of the study, and deals with “samples” rather than a “patient” or “populations”.

How do you evaluate a research question using tools and techniques?

Hear three researchers describe the techniques they use within a framework approach. From finding the right checklist to using the FINER technique, hear about the role curiosity and your comfort level plays in evaluating your research question.

Click on the link, and scroll down.

The purpose of this evidence-informed decision making tool is to:

• Develop a clear, answerable question that can be used to generate a search strategy
• Identify key search terms to facilitate a more efficient search
• Document search strategies/terms for future search updates, either in the same or similar topics

SPICE can be used to evaluate the outcomes of a service, project, or intervention.

ECLIPSE is useful for investigating the outcomes of a policy or service. E=expectation, C= client group, L= location, I= impact, P= professionals, sE= service.

The SPIDER tool is designed to structure qualitative research questions, focusing less on interventions and more on study design, and “samples” rather than populations.

The PICO structure is most commonly used in the health professions to research prognoses, diagnoses and therapies. It is mostly used to compare one intervention with another.

PICOT is a mnemonic derived from the elements of a clinical research question – patient, intervention, comparison, outcome and (sometimes) time. The PICOT process begins with a case scenario, and the question is phrased to elicit an answer.