Lecture 1.1 - Medical Research and Medical Biostatistics using R Course By Dr. Mohamed Ayoub, MD and simple research - www.simpleresearch.net How to formulate your research question using PICO or PICOTS format How to conduct effective advanced PubMed Strategy using MESH terms combined with manual search How to do proper reference management and citation using mendley software

2. 1- Research Question Formulation -
PubMed Search Strategy - References
Management
Dr. Mohamed Ayoub Mortagy, MD
www.simpleresearch.net
info@simpleresearch.net

3. Evidence
Based
Medicine
A set of principles or methods to ensure
that population-based policies and
individual decisions are consistent with
evidence of effectiveness and benefits
Idea started in 1990 in USA, UK and
canada

4. Evidence
based
medicine
process (5
As)
Ask
Access
Appraise
Apply
Assess

5. Medical
evidence
pyramid
(Source:
Wikipedia)

6. How to ask a
research
question
(PICOTS)
P ➔ Patient population
I ➔ Intervention / exposure
C ➔ comparison group
O ➔ outcome / endpoint
T ➔ Type of the question
S ➔ optimal study design to answer the question

7. Best
study
type
for
each
question
Therapy question ➔ randomized controlled trial
Prevention question ➔ randomized controlled trial >
cohort > case control
Diagnosis question ➔ Controlled trial in comparison to
gold standard
Prognosis question ➔ cohort > case control
Etiology/Harm question ➔ RCT > cohort > case control
Cost analysis ➔ economic analysis

8. What is the PICOTS for?
Hydroxychloroquine treatment for covid?
Covid vaccine prevent mortality?
Pcr diagnosis of covid?
Prognosis of covid icu patients?

9. PICOTS
Practice
P
I
C
O
T
S

10. Where
to
search
for
published
studies?
Medline (PubMed)
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
EMBASE https://www.embase.com/
Central (Cochrane Library)
https://www.cochranelibrary.com/
Web of science
https://www.webofscience.com/wos/woscc/basic-
search

11. Where
to
search
for
unpublished
/
ongoing
studies?
Clinicaltrials.gov
https://clinicaltrials.gov/
WHO international clinical
trials registry
https://www.who.int/clinical-
trials-registry-platform

12. Where
to
search
for
point
of
care
resources
or
a
practice
guideline?
Uptodate
https://www.uptodate.com/login
Dynamed https://www.dynamed.com/
National guideline clearinghouse
https://www.ahrq.gov/gam/index.html
PubMed (use practice guidelines article
type filter)

13. Where
to
search
for
background
information? Textbooks
Point of care
resources

14. Where
to
search
for
drug
information?
Clinical pharmacology online
https://www.clinicalpharmacology.com/
Micromedex https://www.ibm.com/Watson-
health/about/micromedex
Epocrates online
https://online.epocrates.com/drugs
Uptodate

15. Where
to
search
for
alternative
therapy
information?
Complementary and Integrative Medicine – Medline Plus
https://medlineplus.gov/complementaryandintegrativemedicine.html
PubMed (use complementary medicine subset and randomized control
trial filter)

16. Other
searching
tools
Google
TRIP Database

17. Source:
https://dobi
fipanasidi.b
almettes.co
m/what-is-
a-research-
design-
16228lt.ht
ml

18. Searching
PubMed
Tutorial
Manual search
Mesh terms
Combined search
PICO search:
https://pubmedhh.nlm.nih.gov/nlmd/pico/piconew.php

19. Boolean
operators
for
PubMed
search
AND
OR
NOT
Brackets
* Symbol

20. Searching PubMed Tutorial

21. Exporting results from
PubMed tutorial

22. References
Management
tools
Endnote
Mendley

23. Mendeley Tutorial