OpenEvidence used by two‑thirds of physicians

NBC News reported on May 13 that OpenEvidence, an artificial-intelligence medical search tool, is now used by nearly two-thirds of U.S. physicians. The report said the company told NBC News that about 65% of U.S. doctors used the platform across almost 27 million clinical encounters in April. (nbcnews.com) OpenEvidence says its service is designed for verified healthcare professionals and delivers citation-linked answers drawn from peer-reviewed medical literature rather than the broader internet. The company’s growth has pushed a once-niche clinical reference tool into routine care settings, according to doctors and health system executives quoted by NBC News. Dr. Anupam Jena, an internal medicine physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and a Harvard professor, told NBC News that “everyone is using it” and said the growth had been “exponential.” (newsroom.wiley.com) ### How widely is OpenEvidence being used by doctors? NBC News said on May 13 that OpenEvidence is actively used by almost two-thirds of U.S. physicians, or roughly 650,000 doctors. The same report said another 1.2 million clinicians use the platform internationally. April usage was especially heavy. (nbcnews.com) OpenEvidence told NBC News that doctors used the service across nearly 27 million clinical encounters that month, and Jena said 60% of searches are about clinical decision-making for a specific patient or condition. ### What does the tool actually do at the point of care? OpenEvidence describes itself as a medical knowledge platform for healthcare professionals, with answers grounded in sources including The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, NCCN and Cochrane. (nbcnews.com) Its website says the service is free for verified U.S. healthcare professionals and available on iOS and Android. NBC News reported that physicians use the product to make clinical decisions, refresh medical knowledge and prepare for licensing exams. (nbcnews.com) The report also said the software can write patient discharge notes and generate study tools, while many searches focus on treatment choices for patients with specific conditions and comorbidities. ### Why have hospitals and publishers moved to work with it? (nbcnews.com) January 21 funding materials from OpenEvidence said the platform is used daily on average by more than 40% of U.S. physicians across more than 10,000 hospitals and medical centers nationwide. In the same announcement, founder and CEO Daniel Nadler said the company’s aim is to help doctors keep up with a volume of new evidence they do not have time to read on their own. (openevidence.com) March 3 and March 31 announcements showed how the company has been expanding both content and deployment. Wiley said its agreement with OpenEvidence would bring hundreds of peer-reviewed journals and Cochrane resources into the platform, while Mount Sinai said it would make OpenEvidence available directly inside the electronic health record for clinicians across its system. (nbcnews.com) ### What are doctors and researchers worried about? NBC News reported that some experts raised concerns about hallucinations, incomplete answers, the lack of rigorous studies on patient impact and the risk that clinicians’ evaluation skills could weaken with heavier dependence on the tool. Those concerns were described alongside broader enthusiasm from doctors who said the product saves time. (businesswire.com) Patient awareness is also part of the debate in NBC News’ reporting. The article said many patients may not know their doctors are consulting AI tools during care, even as the software becomes a regular part of clinical workflow. ### What has helped OpenEvidence gain traction so fast? (newsroom.wiley.com) OpenEvidence said in January that it had raised $250 million in a Series D round that valued the company at $12 billion. The company said it had struck content partnerships with organizations including the New England Journal of Medicine, the American Medical Association, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network and the American College of Cardiology. (nbcnews.com) The company’s website now lists agreements with NEJM, JAMA, NCCN, Wiley and Cochrane, along with specialty society partners including ACC, ADA, AAFP, ACOG and ACEP. Those arrangements give physicians access to source material they can review inside the platform, according to OpenEvidence and Wiley. (nbcnews.com) March 31 marked one next step in that expansion. Mount Sinai said the rollout would place OpenEvidence inside Epic workflows for physicians, nurses and pharmacists across the health system, while Wiley’s March 3 agreement added more journal content for point-of-care use. (mountsinai.org) (openevidence.com) (businesswire.com)