When Physician “Information Diets” Change, Pharma Must Pay Attention

During a recent 1:1 marketing-research interview with an academic cardiologist, I asked my usual question about her “information diet” -- the mix of journals, platforms, and tools she relies on to stay current on the literature. She rattled off the expected roster of names: UpToDate, Medscape, specialty publications and society journals. But then she added something new: “I’ve recently started using OpenEvidence.”

When I asked why, her answer reflected a broader pattern emerging across the physicians we speak with: “It’s more conversational. And now that it’s pulling in sources like NEJM and JAMA, it helps me get to the evidence faster.”

Her comment captured something I’ve been observing more broadly. It indicates something bigger than a new tool on a clinician’s desktop. It reflects a fundamental shift in how people -- not just HCPs, but all of us -- seek, search, filter, and consume information. Just as consumers increasingly turn to ChatGPT for general inquiries, physicians are turning to OpenEvidence, the ChatGPT of medical literature.

And when the physician’s eyeballs move, commercial strategy must move with them.

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The Rise of OpenEvidence -- and Why It’s Being Added to the HCP Menu

OpenEvidence was founded in 2022 and is already being used by an estimated 40%+ of U.S. physicians across more than 10,000 hospitals and medical centers. Its value proposition is simple but disruptive: instead of manually navigating PubMed, guidelines, or journal PDFs, clinicians can ask a natural-language question and receive a synthesized, citation-backed response drawn from top-tier publications.

In other words: OpenEvidence isn’t just another resource; it’s a new interface for evidence itself.

As physicians’ “information diets” diversify, they are adding OpenEvidence because it shortens the path between question and answer. It complements, rather than replaces, legacy tools like UpToDate or Medscape, but it increasingly becomes the first-pass filter clinicians use to orient themselves to new data before digging deeper. We've noted anecdotally that academic physicians, in particular, have been dabbling in OpenEvidence.

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Why This Matters for Pharma Commercial Leaders

For commercial, insights, and medical teams in pharma and biotech, the implications are significant.

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1. The Nature of Search Has Changed -- Personally and Professionally

We no longer search the way we did five years ago. ChatGPT has rapidly trained consumers to expect conversational querying, immediate synthesis, and context-aware summarization. This 2025 Christmas season is case-in-point: more consumers than ever will use AI to inform their purchases. OpenEvidence brings that same behavioral shift into the clinic.

If clinicians increasingly rely on AI-mediated literature review, the traditional pathways through which scientific data influences practice will evolve. The question is no longer just “Where is our data published?” but “How is our data interpreted by AI systems?”

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2. Medical Information Must Be AI-Optimized

This is the strategic frontier. If AI tools are summarizing, ranking, and synthesizing evidence:

• Data clarity matters more
• Study design transparency matters more
• Consistent terminology matters more
• High-quality, machine-readable medical communications matter more

AI doesn’t read like a human. It parses structure, logic flow, citations, and consistency. Medical data that are ambiguous, convoluted, or overly promotional risks being down-weighted or misinterpreted by AI systems clinicians depend on.

Optimizing scientific and medical-information content for AI -- not just for journals, congresses, or field-medical conversations -- will soon be a core commercial capability.

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3. Evidence Diffusion Will Accelerate

When HCPs can instantly surface and compare data, the lag between publication and practice may compress. For launches, competitive intelligence, and forecasting, this means a faster-moving evidence landscape and shorter windows to shape perception.

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Legacy Platforms Are Adapting Too

Medscape and UpToDate have introduced their own AI-driven features, acknowledging the shift. But OpenEvidence’s conversational-first architecture and rapidly expanding content integrations give it momentum, and mindshare, with early adopters.

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The Strategic Imperative

Physicians are reshaping their information diets, adding AI-powered evidence tools alongside their traditional sources. For pharma, the message is clear:

If clinicians are turning to AI to understand the evidence, pharma must ensure its evidence is prepared for, and readily discoverable within, that AI ecosystem.

Medical information that isn’t AI-optimized risks invisibility at the very moment clinicians are asking the most important questions.