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Using PICO to Search PubMed

This guide will explain how to use the PICO framework to improve your evidence based research process.

Framing a Search with PICO

Once you have identified the parts of your PICO question, organize those words as search terms on a chart, like the one below, where each column represents one of the main PICO components. Blank templates are available.

After you identify each of your main PICO elements, take a moment to think about possible synonyms or alternative words, and add them to your chart, like this:

You can then use this chart to construct a beginning database search.

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