Overview of the Clinical Inquiry Assignment Retrieval, interpretation, and application of drug information for various patient populations is a core skill that all pharmacists must be able to perform. One method to respond to drug information questions is through the formulation of a clinical inquiry. The purpose of the clinical inquiry is to develop the student’s ability to present medical information in an accurate, brief, and concise manner and to answer most clinical questions in a matter of minutes. Essentially, these serve as a quick reference

Overview of the Clinical Inquiry Assignment Retrieval, interpretation, and application of drug information for various patient populations is a core skill that all pharmacists must be able to perform. One method to respond to drug information questions is through the formulation of a clinical inquiry. The purpose of the clinical inquiry is to develop the student’s ability to present medical information in an accurate, brief, and concise manner and to answer most clinical questions in a matter of minutes. Essentially, these serve as a quick reference to aid in clinical decision-making. Clinical inquiries should focus on interpreting and applying the best available evidence to a given patient scenario. Question The question assigned to each student will address a specific scenario encountered in pharmacy practice. Questions generally follow the PICO model of questioning (Patient or Population, Intervention or Investigation, Comparison, Outcome). The question should be restated at the beginning of your clinical inquiry response. Evidence Summary of Primary Evidence (300-350 words) This section allows you to explain the evidence behind your recommendation. This section should include information from primary evidence only (RCTs, Meta-Analysis, Systematic Reviews,etc), such as outcomes data (e.g. pain, functional status, resolution of the problem, quality of life, mortality). Be sure to discuss statistically significant results that support your recommendation (e.g., effect sizes with confidence intervals, number needed to treat, likelihood ratios, predictive values, relative and/or absolute risk reduction). Be sure to include the level of evidence for each study reviewed. The use of a table or figure is highly encouraged, as these help to condense information for the reader. Guidelines and Tertiary Literature Summary (100-200 words) This section should provide a summary of guideline recommendations, expert consensus statements, review articles, or textbook information that pertain to the question. These should support your recommendation, but should not be the primary support for your recommendation. Evidence-Based Answer (50-100 words) This is the bottom-line conclusion based on your assessment of the available evidence. You are responding to a provider: This should be written in a manner that the physician could read and understand this conclusion in a matter of minutes. You must use SBAR to format your response. (Remember the SBAR method from PHAR 6111!) The conclusion should be brief and as concrete as possible. Stating, that “more research is needed” is not acceptable for this project. Strength of Recommendation (Does NOT count in word limits) Be sure to state the strength of recommendation (SOR) and reason for the designation (e.g. SOR = A, based on three Level 1 articles having consistent findings). See the Strength of Recommendation Taxonomy (SORT) reference for more information about SOR – https://www.aafp.org/afp/2004/0201/p548.html. (Links to an external site.) References (limit 10) Focus on identifying the highest-quality original published manuscripts that pertain to your question. This may include meta-analyses or systemic reviews. Personal communications, historical practice, and unpublished data should not be referenced. References must be appropriately cited using AMA format.