65% of U.S. doctors now rely on OpenEvidence, a free AI tool most patients don't know about

Free AI Chatbot Dominates Medical Practice Across America

An AI tool called OpenEvidence has rapidly become the default consultation resource for U.S. doctors, with approximately 65% of physicians now using the platform across nearly 27 million clinical encounters in April alone1

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. The free AI-powered chatbot, which markets itself as "America's Official Medical Knowledge Platform," provides healthcare professionals with unlimited access to help make clinical decisions, refresh medical knowledge, and even prepare for licensing exams2

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The platform's growth has been exponential. Just seven months before the April figures, OpenEvidence had signed up 50% of American doctors, according to earlier reports1

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. "Everyone is using it," said Dr. Anupam Jena, an internal medicine physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard professor of healthcare policy2

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. Roughly 650,000 doctors in the U.S. actively use OpenEvidence, with another 1.2 million using it internationally, company representatives confirmed.

How Physicians Deploy OpenEvidence in Clinical Practice

Doctors across specialties rely on OpenEvidence to enhance patient care in real-time medical situations. "Sixty percent of all the searches are about how to make clinical decisions," Jena explained, noting that physicians ask questions like: "For this particular patient, or with this profile, this condition, maybe other comorbidities that they have, what's the right treatment?"2

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A junior doctor in New Hampshire used the platform when a patient's potassium value plummeted, checking whether it was a medication side effect or a new emergency. After searching peer-reviewed medical publications, OpenEvidence confirmed it was a common side effect and provided restoration options2

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. Meanwhile, a doctor at the Indian Health Service in rural Pine Ridge, South Dakota, consulted OpenEvidence about whether an X-ray would suffice to diagnose a suspected spine fracture. The AI tool recommended a CT scan instead and provided links to supporting papers.

Venture-Backed Tech Unicorn Behind the Platform

OpenEvidence is not a charity operation. The Miami-headquartered venture-backed tech unicorn boasts a $12 billion valuation as of January and is backed by prominent investors including Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Google Ventures, Thrive Capital, and Nvidia1

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. Founded by billionaire David Nadler, the company generates revenue through pharmaceutical ads, often promoting products from pharmaceutical and medical device companies1

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The platform provides long, detailed answers with extensive citations that appear trustworthy to non-medical users. However, when NBC News interviewed doctors about their usage patterns, most admitted they only click through to verify sources "when they get an unexpected result"1

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Concerns About Patient Impact and Medical Judgment

Despite widespread adoption, experts have raised concerns about hallucinations, incomplete answers, and a lack of rigorous scientific studies examining the tool's patient impact2

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. Healthcare providers noted that OpenEvidence "occasionally flubbed or exaggerated its answers, particularly on rare conditions or in 'edge' cases"1

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A midcareer doctor in Missouri expressed concern about the erosion of critical thinking skills among recent medical graduates: "My worry is that when we introduce a new tool, any kind of tool that is doing part of your skills that you had trained up for a while beforehand, you start losing those skills pretty quickly"1

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OpenEvidence explicitly states in its terms of service that its services "are in no way intended to serve as a diagnostic service or platform, to provide certainty with respect to a diagnosis, to recommend a particular product or therapy or to otherwise substitute for the clinical judgment of a qualified healthcare professional"2

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Privacy Protocols and Hospital System Responses

While OpenEvidence claims HIPAA compliance through privacy protocols and protections, some health systems remain cautious. MaineHealth currently asks its doctors to refrain from entering protected health information into OpenEvidence2

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. Dr. Jeremy Cauwels, chief medical officer for Sanford Health overseeing more than 2,500 healthcare professionals, noted that "OpenEvidence is one of those tools that's remarkably easy to adopt. It's freely available, it's very functional on your phone, and it's one of those things that can help you answer questions more quickly than you would be able to by any other method"2

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