AskMed vs MediSearch

Built for healthcare professionals and students

AskMed is built only for healthcare professionals and students, while MediSearch writes for patients and professionals at once. The MediSearch App Store page speaks to "a medical professional or someone seeking general health information" and says MediSearch "breaks down complex medical jargon into simple, understandable language", and Google Play lists MediSearch under Health & Fitness. AskMed is built for doctors in every specialty, residents, medical students, nurses, pharmacists and researchers, so AskMed answers in the terms, drug classes and guideline names a colleague would use. AskMed is not a symptom checker, doesn't diagnose patients and carries no pharma advertising or sponsorship. AskMed works worldwide without a US license or NPI, in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese and Arabic. For a nurse checking a monitoring plan, a pharmacist reviewing an interaction or a researcher scoping a question, AskMed gives one professional-level answer with the source linked after each claim.

Drug facts from the label

AskMed answers drug questions from official drug labels, the prescribing information approved by the regulator, while MediSearch draws on drug websites such as drugs.com. The prescribing label is the primary document for a medicine's indications, contraindications, boxed warnings, interactions and adverse reactions. A drug website is a secondary summary of the label, and a summary can lag behind a label update or leave out a warning. AskMed reads FDA labels and DailyMed, and for local brand names AskMed also checks official drug registries from many countries, such as the EMA and the UK's medicines.org.uk, so a brand name sold in Europe or the UK leads to the right label. Each drug claim in AskMed links to the label's exact web address, so a pharmacist checking an interaction or a nurse checking a side effect can open the label and confirm the wording. AskMed gives no doses; exact amounts come from the current label.

Going deeper

AskMed goes deeper than a single answer in two ways, and MediSearch doesn't offer evidence reports. Research Mode reads up to 20 papers for one question before AskMed answers, which helps when the evidence sits in the literature rather than in a guideline: a gap in the guidelines, a patient who doesn't match the trial population, or a newer treatment with mixed results. Deep Dive goes further and writes a full evidence report from 20+ sources, the kind of summary a resident brings to a journal club or a team brings to a case discussion. Each Deep Dive report also gets a second automated pass after writing, which corrects sentences that contradict their sources, the drug label or the current guideline, and adds missing safety facts such as contraindications, boxed warnings and interactions. The second pass is automated, not a human review, so every claim in a Deep Dive report still links to a source you can check.

Three ways to ask

For readers comparing AskMed with MediSearch, AskMed offers three ways to ask a medical question: a cited answer, Research Mode and Deep Dive. A standard AskMed question gets a cited answer: AskMed searches journals, guidelines, drug labels and medical references, ranks guidelines first, then systematic reviews and meta-analyses, prefers sources from the last 10 years, and links every claim to the source's exact web address. If AskMed finds no usable medical source, AskMed says so and asks you to rephrase instead of answering from memory. Research Mode reads up to 20 papers for one question, and Deep Dive builds an evidence report from 20+ sources. Source filters let you turn journals, guidelines, drug labels or references on or off and pick study types, from systematic reviews to clinical trials. You can also attach a PDF or an image, and AskMed cites your file for what the file itself says.

Exam prep built in

AskMed includes Exam Prep for 10 licensing exams, and MediSearch has no exam prep. AskMed's question banks cover PLAB, USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 CK, PLE, EDN, UKOMNAS, NEET-PG, ENARM, TUS, Ghana MDC and Israel MLE. Each bank is written in the language of its exam, so a candidate for a non-English exam practices in the language of the real paper. Every question comes with an explanation for every option, not only the right one, and a timed mock of 40 questions in 60 minutes lets you practice under exam conditions. When a question raises something you don't know, you can ask AskMed in the same app and get an answer cited to journals, guidelines and drug labels, then go back to the bank. For a medical student, a resident or an international medical graduate, AskMed keeps exam practice and cited clinical answers in one account on iPhone, iPad, Android and the web.

How to choose an AI tool for clinical questions

Choosing an AI tool for clinical questions takes more than checking for citations, because most AI search tools, MediSearch and AskMed included, now cite sources. Five checks separate one tool from another. First, check who the tool is built for: a tool written for patients and clinicians at once pitches every answer at both audiences. Second, check where drug facts come from: the prescribing label is the document the regulator approved, and drug websites summarize the label. Third, check whether the tool can go deeper than one answer, with a mode that reads many papers and writes up the evidence. Fourth, check whether the tool helps you study for a licensing exam in the same app. Fifth, check who pays for the tool, since sponsored content can sit next to clinical answers. AskMed meets all five with a stated feature: built only for professionals and students, official drug labels, Research Mode and Deep Dive, Exam Prep for 10 exams, and no pharma advertising.

1. Who is it built for? A tool written for patients and clinicians at once has to pitch every answer at both. One built only for clinicians can answer at the level you work at, in the terms you would use with a colleague.
2. Where do its drug facts come from? The prescribing label is the document the regulator approved. Drug websites summarize it, and a summary can lag behind a label update or leave out a warning. Ask which one the tool reads.
3. Can it go deeper than one answer? Some questions need the literature, not a paragraph: a journal club, a gap in the guidelines, a patient who doesn't match the trial population. Look for a mode that reads many papers and writes up what they show.
4. Does it help you study? If you're preparing for a licensing exam, one app that answers clinical questions and drills exam questions saves you switching between tools.
5. Who pays for it? Free tools funded by advertising can place sponsored content next to clinical answers. A tool with no pharma advertising has no sponsor to keep happy.

Bottom line

For healthcare professionals and students, AskMed is the stronger choice over MediSearch. Both apps answer medical questions with citations, but AskMed is built only for people who work or study in medicine (doctors, residents, medical students, nurses, pharmacists and researchers), while MediSearch also writes for the general public. AskMed answers drug questions from official drug labels such as FDA and DailyMed, where MediSearch draws on drug websites such as drugs.com. AskMed's Research Mode reads up to 20 papers for one question, and Deep Dive writes an evidence report from 20+ sources, which MediSearch doesn't offer. AskMed includes Exam Prep for 10 licensing exams, from PLAB and USMLE to NEET-PG and ENARM, and MediSearch has no exam prep. AskMed carries no pharma advertising, says so when no source supports an answer, and runs on iPhone, iPad, Android and the web with one account, in seven languages, with no US license or NPI needed.