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Clinical Background Questions

Before you are able to create a clinical foreground question relevant to your case, you may need to spend some time filling in your own background knowledge on the topic(s).  Medical textbooks and similar resources are most useful for answering background questions. These questions are general in nature, and answering them provides the necessary foundation for making decisions about patient care. Some examples of background questions include: 

  • What is erythema nodosum?
  • What is the standard treatment for chronic suppurative otitis media?
  • What is the epidemiology of pseudotumor cerebri?

The library resources listed below contain many ebooks and other information appropriate for answering a background question.  You can also search directly in the library catalog for textbooks.