Quickstart: from trials to a report

A short, task-oriented guide to go from clinical trials to extracted data, pooled statistics, and a narrative report — in five steps.

For a deeper explanation of each step, see How it works.

Five steps from trials to a finished report.

1. Add trials and publications

Start by identifying the studies you want to include:

Use the Search step to add trials by NCT ID and publications by PMID or keyword.
Alternatively, use the Search Agent to automatically build and execute optimized PubMed and ClinicalTrials.gov queries based on your PICO/PEO criteria. The agent screens scouted results against your criteria in real time to ensure high precision.
Trials (with nctId) and publications (with pmid/ doi) are stored as studies.
ClinicalTrials.gov trials are automatically linked to their publications when PMIDs are present in the registry — each trial becomes a canonical study with one or more reports.

Search step — adding trials and publications by NCT ID or PMID — The Search step: add trials by NCT ID and publications by PMID or keyword.

Learn more: How it works: study ingestion

2. Get full text and supplements

Move to the Full Text tab and obtain PDFs and supplementary materials:

The system tries to auto-download a PDF from open access sources or known publisher links. When automatic resolvers fail, a the system automatically discovers additional sources.
Supplements are auto-fetched alongside the main PDF — including PDF appendices, Excel tables, and Word documents from PMC and publisher sites. Office formats are automatically parsed and processed.
Successful downloads are marked as Parsed once the PDF has been processed into text and tables.
If a PDF cannot be downloaded (e.g. paywalled, not found), the row shows Manual upload needed. Use Upload PDF manually to attach your own copy, or use Bulk Upload to drag‑and‑drop up to 50 PDFs at once with automatic study matching.

Full Text tab showing download status and supplements for each study — The Full Text tab: auto-download status, supplement sub-rows, bulk upload, and manual upload for paywalled papers.

Learn more: How it works: full text

3. Check extraction eligibility

Not every parsed document is suitable for data extraction. The system automatically filters out non-results documents:

Trials that are still recruiting or have no posted results on ClinicalTrials.gov are not shown in the Extraction tab.
Protocol-only or feasibility papers are excluded from extraction — they describe planned methods, not actual outcomes.
Trials become eligible once they have CT.gov posted results, or linked primary_result / secondary_analysis publications with parsed PDFs.

Learn more: How it works: triage

4. Extract outcomes and run the meta-analysis

Once eligible studies have parsed full text, extract endpoint data and compute pooled effects:

Use Auto‑Extract All Outcomes to batch‑extract data across all eligible studies in parallel. The system handles document acquisition, companion paper resolution, and multi‑agent extraction automatically.
Each extracted value carries a confidence badge (green/amber/red) and a provenance trail linking back to the source snippet in the PDF. Values below confidence thresholds are routed to a Review Queue for human validation.
The Live Effect Stripe above the data grid shows the derived effect estimate (Est, SE, 95% CI) in real time — green when plausible, amber when warnings are detected.
The math engine checks and derives missing quantities (e.g. SDs from SEs or CIs), detects arm swaps, and validates consistency before accepting data.
When sources conflict (e.g., registry vs. PDF values), the conflict side‑by‑side view lets you compare and choose with one click.
Use the Triage Matrix view (toggle button in the center panel header) for a cross-study overview of extraction progress across all endpoints.
In the Analysis tab, build a dataset for your endpoint and run fixed-effect or random-effects models.

Extraction tab showing AI-assisted data extraction with live effect preview — The Extraction tab: AI-assisted data capture with live effect preview stripe, outcome status bars in the study list, and source snippets for verification.

Forest plot from the Analysis tab showing pooled effect sizes — The Analysis tab: forest plot with per-study effect sizes, confidence intervals, and pooled estimate.

Learn more: Extraction & math engine · Statistics & canonical studies

5. Pin evidence and generate a report

Turn your analysis into a narrative report using the Evidence Board and Reports:

From the Analysis view, pin important plots and tables as snapshots on the Evidence Board.
Pin key chat messages (e.g. explanations, decisions) and PRISMA summaries so they are available as evidence.
In the Reports & Evidence tab, group evidence by section (Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion).
Use Generate Draft to create a report from only the evidence you selected. Pick a target audience (e.g., Academic, Clinical, Regulatory, Patient) to tailor the tone and detail level, then edit and export as DOCX or XLSX.

New report creation dialog — Creating a new report: choose a name, target audience, and the evidence sections to include.

Learn more: How it works: reports & evidence

This Quickstart covers the main workflow. When you need more detail on how a particular part of the system behaves — especially around triage, extraction, or statistics — refer to the How it works documentation.

How it works