Free access bypasses hospital procurement

Free access turns distribution into the product. Instead of waiting for a hospital CIO, security review, budget owner, and contract cycle, OpenEvidence can spread one doctor at a time because it does not require patient records for its core search workflow. That makes adoption look more like Doximity than UpToDate at the front end, but with a stronger path to later enterprise upsell once physician usage is already established inside the hospital.

• The practical difference is who approves the first use. UpToDate is usually bought as a hospital seat license, around $500 per seat, which means procurement, legal, and budgeting come first. OpenEvidence is free at the point of use, so a doctor can start asking clinical questions immediately, then bring proven usage back to the institution later.
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• This bottom up motion only works because the core product avoids protected health information. In healthcare, most software touches patient data and quickly becomes an enterprise sale with business associate agreements and IT review. Tools that do not need PHI, like Doximity and OpenEvidence's search product, can spread with much less friction.
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• Once enough doctors use it daily, the company gets two assets that incumbents took years to build, attention and trust. That usage helped OpenEvidence reach about 40% to 45% of U.S. physicians, secure NEJM and JAMA partnerships in 2025, and create the wedge for EHR integrations and broader workflow products later.
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The next phase is converting physician level pull into system level contracts. If OpenEvidence keeps owning the research step, then adds deeper workflow hooks like EHR integration, notes, calling, and drug or prior auth tasks, the free access model becomes a beachhead for a much larger enterprise business rather than just a fast user acquisition tactic.