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Evidence Search

Evidence Search lets you search PubMed -- the US National Library of Medicine's database of peer-reviewed biomedical literature -- without leaving your session workspace. Use it to check the evidence base for an intervention while planning a session, look up research during a session, and attach citations to your clinical notes.

Evidence Search is available to clinical team members (practitioners, supervisors, interns, and behaviour support practitioners) from the session workspace.

Where to find it​

  • Before a session (planning) -- open the session and select the Evidence tab in the right-hand panel.
  • During a session -- select the Evidence button in the session toolbar to open the search panel as a slide-over.

Evidence Search is not available during the wrap-up phase, which focuses on post-session actions.

  1. Open the Evidence panel and enter a clinical question or topic -- for example, "CBT for social anxiety disorder"

  2. (Optional) Select Filters to narrow the results:

    FilterOptions
    Date Range1 year, 3 years, 5 years (default), 10 years, All time
    Article TypesMeta-analysis, Systematic Review, RCT, Clinical Trial, Review, Guideline

  3. (Optional) Tick Include client context to refine results using the client's details

  4. Press Enter or select the search button

Search terms need at least three characters. Each search returns up to 20 of the most relevant matches, with the total match count shown above the results (for example, "Showing 10 of 1,432 results").

What "Include client context" sends

The Include client context option appears only when the session has a linked client with a recorded age, sex, or diagnoses. Ticking it adds just those details to the search query to refine results -- the client's name and other identifying information are never included. Leave it unticked if you prefer not to send any client details to the external search service.

Read the results​

Each result card shows:

  • Relevance score -- how closely the article matches your query
  • Evidence level -- a badge from Level I to Level IV, where Level I indicates the strongest study designs (such as systematic reviews and meta-analyses)
  • Authors, journal, and year of publication
  • Abstract -- select Show more to expand it

From a result card you can:

  • Open the article on PubMed -- select the PMID link (or the DOI link where one is available)
  • Copy Citation -- copies an APA-formatted citation to your clipboard

If a search fails, select Retry. If no results are found, try broadening the date range, removing article-type filters, or rephrasing the query.

Cite evidence in a clinical note​

When a session transcript is available, you can search directly from the transcript and attach citations to your draft note:

  1. Open the transcript and select the segments you want evidence for
  2. In the Evidence citations panel, select Search evidence
  3. Review the suggested articles -- select Show abstract to check relevance, or Refine search to adjust the search term
  4. Select Attach to note on any citation

The citation is recorded against your draft clinical note. The note editor must be open before you can attach citations.

Save and share results​

Select Save conversation above your search results to keep the search and its results for later reference.

To share a saved evidence conversation, ask the AI assistant -- for example, "share my saved evidence conversation with Priya". The assistant asks you to approve the share before anything is sent. A share can include an optional message and an expiry date, and you can revoke it later the same way.

Colleagues receive shared conversations at Sessions > Shared with me, on the Evidence tab. Each shared card shows the conversation title, who shared it and when, any message, and the expiry date if one was set.

Practice setting

Evidence sharing is controlled at the practice level: a practice owner can turn Allow evidence-search sharing on or off in Settings > Clinical, under Session Sharing.

Choose the sources AI agents read​

Separate from the PubMed search panel, Praxi's AI agents (led by Ada, the knowledge agent) draw on a configurable register of evidence sources for research, formulation, and treatment-planning tasks. You control what they read:

  1. Go to Settings > AI and find the What Ada reads section

  2. Use a system preset (pre-configured and read-only) as your default, or select Create to build a custom preference:

    SettingWhat it controls
    Authority TiersWhich source tiers agents may use, from Tier 1 (government and regulatory) to Tier 5 (expert consensus)
    Evidence CategoriesThe kinds of material included -- for example clinical guidelines, meta-analyses, peer-reviewed journals
    CountriesPreference for Australian or international sources
    Require peer reviewedRestrict agents to peer-reviewed material
    Include general searchAllow agents to supplement with general web results
    Year rangeLimit sources by publication year
    Max sources per query1 to 50 sources per research task (default 10)

  3. Make any preset or custom preference your default

If no default is set, agents use the "Clinical Evidence" system preset. The evidence sources available to your practice vary by subscription plan.

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