OpenEvidence's Push to Own Clinician Attention
OpenEvidence vs Doximity
OpenEvidence is trying to turn a point product into the default doctor app. Free search got it into the clinician workflow, but free scribing and calling push it closer to the tools a physician opens all day, not just when looking up a question. That matters because its business improves with repeated daily use. More sessions create more ad inventory, more first party workflow data, and more leverage to sell into hospitals later.
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The clearest comparison is Doximity. Doximity built a large physician audience with utility products like the dialer, news, scheduling, telehealth, and recruiting, then monetized that attention mostly through marketing. OpenEvidence is following the same attention playbook, but starting from clinical search at the exact moment a doctor is making a care decision.
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Giving away Visits also changes the economics of the AI scribe market. Freed built a bottom up self serve scribe at $99 per month for small practices, while larger vendors like Suki, Abridge, and Ambience sell more expensive workflow products. OpenEvidence can treat scribing as a free acquisition cost because it already monetizes physician attention through ads.
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This strategy works because OpenEvidence already has unusual reach for a young product. It was actively used by over 40% of U.S. physicians by mid to late 2025, and later said it was used across more than 10,000 hospitals and medical centers. That installed base makes each new free tool less a product launch and more a distribution move.
The next step is deeper workflow capture. If OpenEvidence keeps bundling free doctor utilities, then search, notes, calls, and eventually EHR connected actions can live in one place. That would move it beyond being an ad supported reference tool and toward becoming the operating layer where clinician attention is aggregated and then monetized through both ads and enterprise software.