AskMed vs OpenEvidence

What is OpenEvidence?

OpenEvidence is an AI medical search app from OpenEvidence Inc. that answers clinical questions for healthcare professionals, most of them in the United States. The OpenEvidence App Store listing, subtitled "Evidence-Based Clinical AI", describes a clinical decision support tool and medical search engine whose answers are sourced, cited and grounded in the peer-reviewed literature. The listing names content partners including the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA and its 11 specialty journals, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, Nature, the Cochrane Library and Wiley, and says answers draw on more than 35 million peer-reviewed papers plus FDA and CDC sources. OpenEvidence also lists EvidenceGrade, a rating of evidence strength, continuing medical education credit, Visits for ambient documentation and a Dialer for patient calls. OpenEvidence runs on the web, iPhone, iPad and Android. Its App Store listing says OpenEvidence is available only to healthcare professionals, marks an NPI as required and states that the app contains advertising.

How do AskMed and OpenEvidence answer a medical question differently?

AskMed and OpenEvidence both write cited answers, but AskMed lets you set the evidence behind each answer and states what happens when none is found. AskMed searches a fixed list of medical sources: journals and databases such as PubMed, the Cochrane Library, NEJM, The Lancet, JAMA and The BMJ; guidelines and agencies such as NICE, the USPSTF, WHO, CDC, ECDC and ESC; FDA and DailyMed drug labels, plus official registries such as the EMA and the UK's medicines.org.uk for local brand names; and references such as StatPearls and the MSD Manual. AskMed ranks guidelines first, then systematic reviews and meta-analyses, and prefers sources from the last 10 years. Source filters turn journals, guidelines, drug labels or references on or off, pick study types and set 3 to 12 sources per answer. OpenEvidence says its answers draw on peer-reviewed literature from licensed partners and FDA and CDC sources; its listings don't state user-set filters or what happens when no evidence is found.

1. A cited answer. Every claim in an AskMed answer links to its 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.
2. Research Mode. AskMed reads up to 20 papers for one question, for a journal club, a gap in the guidelines or a patient who doesn't match the trial population.
3. Deep Dive. AskMed writes a full evidence report from 20+ sources, then a second automated pass corrects sentences that contradict their sources and adds missing safety facts such as boxed warnings and interactions.
4. No drug doses. AskMed covers what a drug is used for, how it works, monitoring, side effects and how dosing is adjusted, but never states amounts or schedules; those come from the current label.

How AskMed answers lists every source and limit in full.

Who can sign up for AskMed and OpenEvidence?

AskMed lets anyone who works or studies in medicine sign up in any country, while OpenEvidence limits both who can register and where. OpenEvidence's Terms of Use, last updated on September 17, 2026, say the service is not available in the European Union, the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, and that access from those regions is prohibited. Registration asks for your name, email address, profession, specialty and a National Provider Identifier (NPI), "or, as applicable, other professional licensing number". OpenEvidence's App Store and Google Play listings both say users must verify their healthcare professional status before using OpenEvidence. AskMed needs no NPI and no license number, so a GP in Manchester, a nurse in Madrid, a pharmacist in Lagos, a student in Delhi and a researcher in Toronto use the same app. One AskMed account works on iPhone, iPad, Android and the web, and AskMed searches NICE, WHO, ECDC and ESC guidance alongside US sources such as the CDC and the USPSTF.

For the country-by-country picture and other tools that work outside the US, see OpenEvidence alternatives for doctors outside the US. For a three-way look that adds OpenAI's clinician product, see OpenEvidence vs ChatGPT for Clinicians vs AskMed.

Exam prep built in

AskMed includes question banks for 10 licensing exams, and OpenEvidence's App Store and Google Play listings mention no question bank. AskMed's banks cover PLAB, USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 CK, PLE, EDN, UKOMNAS, NEET-PG, ENARM, TUS, Ghana MDC and Israel MLE, and each bank is written in the language of its exam, such as French for EDN, Spanish for ENARM and Turkish for TUS. Every question comes with an explanation for every option, not only the right one, and cites one to three published sources. A timed mock of 40 questions in 60 minutes lets you practice under exam conditions. The questions are written in advance and reviewed before they are served, never generated by AI while you study. When a question exposes a gap, you can ask AskMed in the same app, get an answer cited to journals, guidelines and drug labels, and return to the bank. Students and international graduates keep exam practice and clinical answers in one account.

The best AI apps for USMLE and the best AI apps for PLAB 1 compare AskMed with dedicated question banks.

When should you use AskMed or OpenEvidence?

AskMed is the better fit for most people in medicine who need a cited answer to a clinical question, and the only fit for anyone OpenEvidence doesn't serve. Use AskMed if you practise or study in the UK, the EU or the EEA, where OpenEvidence's Terms of Use say the service is not available. Use AskMed if you have no NPI or other professional license number to register with. Use AskMed if you want to choose the evidence, with filters for source types, study types and 3 to 12 sources, or if you need a local brand name checked in a registry such as the EMA or medicines.org.uk. Use AskMed if you're preparing for one of 10 licensing exams, or want an app with no pharma advertising. OpenEvidence's listing also describes tools outside clinical reference, such as Visits for ambient documentation and a Dialer for patient calls; AskMed doesn't offer note-taking or calling and focuses on cited answers and exam practice.

How to check an AI medical answer

Checking an AI medical answer, whether it comes from AskMed, OpenEvidence or any other tool, takes four steps, because any AI system can misread a source or leave something out. First, open the citation behind the sentence you plan to act on and confirm that the source says what the sentence says, for the same group of patients: a trial in adults doesn't answer a question about children. Second, look at the date and type of source: a current guideline outweighs an older review, and one small study is weaker than a meta-analysis. Third, check whose guidance it is, because NICE, US and European guidelines can disagree, so follow the one that applies where you practise. Fourth, take doses from the current prescribing information or your local formulary, never from an AI summary. AskMed speeds up these checks by labelling each source as a Guideline, Research, Drug label or Reference, and by giving the year of each guideline recommendation it states.

1. Open the citation. Read the sentence in the source itself, not the summary of it.
2. Check the date and type. Prefer the newest guideline, then systematic reviews, then single studies.
3. Check whose guidance it is. Name your country in the question when local practice matters.
4. Get doses from the label. Use the current prescribing information or your local formulary.

For what published studies found about general chatbots, see Is ChatGPT accurate for medical questions?

Bottom line

For most people who work or study in medicine, AskMed is the stronger choice over OpenEvidence. Both apps answer clinical questions with citations, but OpenEvidence is built around verified healthcare professionals in the US: its Terms of Use rule out the UK, the EU and the EEA, registration asks for an NPI or other professional licensing number, and its App Store listing says the app contains advertising. AskMed works worldwide with no NPI or license number, for doctors, residents, medical students, nurses, pharmacists and researchers alike, on iPhone, iPad, Android and the web with one account. AskMed lets you set source types, study types and 3 to 12 sources on every question, checks drug registries outside the US such as the EMA, says so when no source supports an answer, and never gives drug doses. AskMed adds question banks for 10 licensing exams, carries no pharma advertising and comes in seven languages: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese and Arabic.