Institute:Office of National Coordinator (ONC) Workforce Training Curriculum
Component:The Culture of Health Care
Unit:Evidence-Based Practice
Lecture:Definition and application of EBM
Phrasing the clinical question
Slide content:Background Questions General information not specific to a given patient Examples What causes pneumonia? When do complications of type I diabetes usually occur? Distinction from foreground questions can be blurry New etiologies of disease Level of training (e.g., specialist vs. student) 15
Slide notes:15 Lets explore background questions further. Sometimes background questions ask for general information that is not specific to a given patient, such as What causes pneumonia? What are the usual causes of pneumonia, such as bacteria, viruses, sometimes chemical pneumonia; are there other possible causes? At what stage of the disease do the complications of type 1 diabetes usually occur? In what order do complications such as neuropathy, heart disease, and kidney failure generally occur in type 1 diabetes ? It turns out that the distinction between background and foreground questions is sometimes blurry. For example, there are new etiologies or causes of disease that you may want to know about either as background or foreground. Your level of training also may determine whether your questions are background or foreground questions. If youre a sub-specialist, you may tend to ask more background questions, whereas if youre a student, and nearly everything is new to you, your questions will tend to be foreground questions. Although the distinction is blurry, it is important to understand a clinical question and how to phrase a clinical question to find the best evidence. This brings us to foreground questions.