OpenEvidence wins physicians bypassing procurement

OpenEvidence turned healthcare distribution upside down by first winning the doctor, not the hospital. Because a physician could open the app immediately, ask a clinical question, and get cited answers without routing data from the EHR or sending patient records into the product, adoption could spread by word of mouth instead of procurement. That let OpenEvidence build usage across more than 40% of U.S. physicians before selling deeper workflow software into health systems.

• This is the opposite of the usual healthcare software path. Tools like Abridge sell into hospitals, integrate deeply with Epic, and then roll out enterprise wide, which produces bigger contracts but also much longer implementation and approval cycles, often around 18 to 24 months.
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• Free access matters because it removes budget approval at the point of first use. OpenEvidence could monetize later through pharma and med device advertising, reaching $50M annualized revenue by June 2025 and about $150M by late 2025 while usage kept expanding among verified clinicians.
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• Not touching patient records matters because the initial product behaves more like a research and reference layer than a system of record. That makes it easier to deploy as a standalone tool, then add HIPAA compliant visit level workflows and EHR connected products after the audience is already there.
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The next step is predictable. OpenEvidence is using clinician attention as the wedge, then moving into documentation, calling, EHR connected decision support, and other point of care workflows. If it keeps converting free daily usage into embedded enterprise software, it can follow the path from reference tool to operating layer inside clinical work.