Clinical evidence search for verified clinicians
Workup Desk vs OpenEvidence
Comparison last verified November 2, 2026. Facts about OpenEvidence come from the public sources listed at the end of this page.
The short answer
OpenEvidence answers clinical questions from medical literature. It has content agreements with NEJM, JAMA Network, Springer Nature, NCCN and Cochrane, and it is free for verified US healthcare professionals. OpenEvidence covers its costs with labeled advertising and says advertisers cannot influence answers. Its Visits feature, launched in August 2025, transcribes the encounter, drafts the note with evidence added, and lets you upload and search patient documents.
Workup Desk starts from the other end. Your sources are the patient's own referral, letters, results and your notes, and Workup Desk answers from those documents and drafts the assessment, referral letter or handover summary from them. Workup Desk does not search the medical literature and does not record visits.
The two fit together. Use OpenEvidence to check what the evidence says about a question. Use Workup Desk to assemble what this patient's records say and write it up. If you are a US clinician who wants evidence search, ambient notes and document search in one app, OpenEvidence costs you nothing.
Compare them side by side
| OpenEvidence | Workup Desk | |
|---|---|---|
| Who it is for | Verified US healthcare professionals | Doctors who assess patients: primary care physicians, outpatient specialists and hospital doctors, alone or as a team |
| Answers come from | Medical literature and guidelines, including content from NEJM, JAMA Network, NCCN and Cochrane | Answers from that patient's sources, naming the document each answer comes from |
| Patient documents | Visits lets you upload and organize patient documents and ask about histories and past treatments | The patient's documents as PDF, Word, Excel and PNG files, plus notes you type |
| Recording the encounter | Visits records and transcribes the encounter and drafts a note, with evidence added to the assessment and plan | None. You add your own visit notes as text |
| Documents it drafts | Visit notes from templates, prior authorization letters and patient handouts | Drafts you edit: a clinical assessment, a referral letter, a discharge or handover summary, a patient summary |
| Patient data | States HIPAA compliance and SOC 2 Type II, and handles PHI for covered entities under its standard Business Associate Agreement | We keep data in your organization's account and check the permissions on each workspace on the server. Add identifiable patient data once the data processing agreement for your jurisdiction is in place |
| Price | Free for verified US healthcare professionals, paid for by labeled advertising. A separate enterprise offering for health systems | One paid plan, with billing through Stripe. Early access is by invitation from the waitlist |
Choose OpenEvidence if
- You want fast, cited answers to clinical questions from journals and guidelines
- You are a verified US clinician and want evidence search, ambient notes and patient document search at no cost
- You are fine with labeled advertising in exchange for a free tool
Choose Workup Desk if
- You want answers from one patient's own records, naming the document each answer comes from
- You need an editable assessment, referral letter or handover summary that you draft from those records
- Your practice wants a paid workspace with organization roles and per-patient sharing
Try it on one patient's documents
Open a workspace, add the referral, letters and results, and draft the assessment from them. Early access is by invitation.
Common questions
Is OpenEvidence free?
For verified US healthcare professionals, yes. OpenEvidence says it shows a limited number of labeled ads from vetted advertisers to cover its costs, and that its answer system and its ad system are not connected. It also sells an enterprise offering to health systems.
Does Workup Desk search medical literature like OpenEvidence?
No. Workup Desk answers from the documents in the patient's workspace. For guideline and literature questions, use an evidence tool such as OpenEvidence and record your conclusion in the assessment yourself.
Does OpenEvidence sign a BAA?
OpenEvidence's security page says it complies with HIPAA, that covered entities may transmit PHI, and that it handles PHI under its standard Business Associate Agreement or customer agreements. It also reports SOC 2 Type II for the security category.