Skip to Main Content

San Francisco Peninsula Campus Library: Research

Library Resources and Services

Background Information is Found in the Library Catalog

Search for clinical background/expert opinion sources in the library catalog
Encyclopedias, dictionaries, textbooks, handbooks, and other resources help you discover basic information—names, dates, definitions, summaries, etc. These are good places to start when narrowing or choosing your topic and when beginning research on an unfamiliar subject.

Background Questions asks for general knowledge about a disease or   disease process that have two essential components. Example: What causes migraines? or How often should women over the age of 40 have a mammogram?

The background question is usually asked because of the need for basic information. It is not normally asked because of a need to make a clinical decision about a specific patient.

These sources are also useful when looking for background information:

If you need help with your research, email Geri and request an appointment.

PICO(TS) and all that...

Elements of the clinical question

Ovid PICO Widget

Patient, Problem, Population

Describe as accurately as possible the patient or group of patients of interest

Veteran with PTSD

Intervention or Issue of Interest

What is the main intervention or therapy you wish to consider? Including an exposure to disease, a diagnostic test, a prognostic factor, a treatment, a patient perception, or risk factor.

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)

Comparison(optional) 

Is there an alternative treatment to compare? Including no disease, placebo, a different prognostic factor, absence of risk factor, etc.

 

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)

Outcome    

What is the clinical outcome, including a time horizon if relevant?

Decrease in PTSD symptoms

Foreground questions ask for specific knowledge about managing patients with a disease and have 3 or 4 essential components (PICO - listed above). These questions require secondary sources (i.e.scholarly journal articles) accessed through databases such as CINAHL and MEDLINE.

askMEDLINE - free text, natural language search engine and tools to search PubMed from your mobile device and formulate PICO questions.

Controlled Vocabulary - Medical Subject Headings [MeSH] Database

EBPH Glossary of  Studies - Descriptions of Randomized Controlled Trials, Cohort Studies...

Medline, PubMed, PubMed Central (PMC) - How are they different?