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PICO is a pneumonic for a framework that is used in medicine and health sciences to break down a scenario into a focus question for research.  

PICO stands for: 

P – Patient/Problem/Population 

I – Intervention (treatment/cause etc.) 

C – Comparison (i.e. to patients without the intervention) 

O – Outcome(s) 

For more information, see our resources on PICO searches and systematic reviews, Looking for health information and also see the Library guide on medicine and health.