We expect to receive a large number of clinical questions and need an effective way to organise them for easy access. While users will be able to search the questions, browsing will also be supported through a classification scheme.

We plan to classify the questions in three ways:

  • Clinical area (e.g. cardiology, oncology) – we have a 38, from Allergy & Immunology to Urology
  • Question type (e.g. diagnosis, treatment)
  • Quality of evidence – a simple system to indicate how robust the evidence is in answering the question, this will be high, medium or low

The question type classification is an interesting one and the full list is:

  • Causes & Risk Factors
  • Screening, Detection & Diagnosis
  • Initial Management
  • Long-term Management
  • Complications & Adverse Effects
  • Special Considerations
  • Outlook & Future Care

We developed this approach to reflect the natural timeline of a condition – from risk factors and diagnosis through to treatment and prognosis. The idea was inspired by clinical guidelines, which provide comprehensive overviews of condition management but can’t address every possible clinical scenario. By linking relevant Q&As to each stage of the guideline, we can fill in those gaps – and potentially even allow users to submit specific questions directly from within the guideline itself.