OpenEvidence becomes doctors’ go-to AI tool for clinical decisions

OpenEvidence has moved from a startup novelty to a routine clinical tool, saying it has supported more than 200 million AI-powered consultations and now handles more than 1 million clinical searches a day in the United States from logged-in verified clinicians. The company says its system is now used across more than 10,000 hospitals and medical centers, making it one of the clearest signs that AI is slipping into everyday American medicine.

The speed of adoption is striking because OpenEvidence has paired its growth with a simple pitch: free and unlimited access for healthcare professionals. That model has helped drive use among nearly two-thirds of physicians, according to the company, and it says it is the most widely used medical AI among verified U.S. clinicians. In July 2025, OpenEvidence raised $210 million at a $3.5 billion valuation. By January 2026, it had raised another $250 million and its valuation had jumped to $12 billion.

The company’s strategy has been to ground answers in medical literature rather than in generic chatbot output. OpenEvidence has content agreements with JAMA Network, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, Wiley, the American College of Cardiology and NEJM Group content, among others. Wiley said in March 2026 that physicians using OpenEvidence could access content from hundreds of Wiley journals and resources. Wiley also said medical knowledge doubles every 73 days, while published research has taken an average of 17 years to reach clinical practice, a gap that helps explain why doctors are embracing tools that can surface evidence quickly at the point of care.

That is also where the trust question sharpens. OpenEvidence is no longer just a separate search product; it is being woven into hospital workflows, including directly inside electronic health records. Mount Sinai Health System announced on March 31, 2026, that clinicians, including nurses and pharmacists, would be able to access OpenEvidence inside the electronic health record. Sutter Health has also said it will launch OpenEvidence within Epic workflows for clinicians. Once a tool sits inside the chart, it becomes part of the care process, not just a reference site.

That shift raises a basic question for American medicine: if AI helped shape a diagnosis, medication choice or treatment plan, should patients be told? OpenEvidence’s rise suggests doctors are already answering that question with their clicks. The harder work now is building guardrails around accuracy, privacy and liability fast enough to keep pace with the technology’s spread.