The partnership deploys OpenEvidence to clinicians at Penn Medicine and expands global access to high quality clinical decision-making, including through the Botswana-UPenn Partnership, advancing a shared commitment to global health and AI-enabled clinical decision support in low- and middle-income countries.
MIAMI, FL & PHILADELPHIA, PA — September 15, 2026 — OpenEvidence, the most widely used medical AI and clinical decision-making tool among U.S. physicians, and Penn Medicine today announced a global partnership to bring AI-powered clinical decision support to Penn Medicine's more than 10,000 clinicians across its seven-hospital U.S. health system.
That clinical decision support will also extend to low and middle income countries through the Botswana-UPenn Partnership (BUP). Building on Penn Medicine’s deep cooperation with the healthcare sector in Botswana, the agreement with OpenEvidence enables Penn Medicine teams to design a tool from the ground up that is built to support the particular considerations of practicing in the region.
OpenEvidence’s tools will be accessible to clinicians within the campuses of Penn Medicine and the Botswana-UPenn Partnership, bringing personalized, evidence-based insights—drawn directly from both available medical literature and information pulled directly from the electronic health record—right to Penn's clinicians with the assistance of AI. The idea is to have the right evidence, for the right patient, at the exact right time, all embedded within workflow.
“OpenEvidence was founded on the belief that the best available medical evidence should reach every clinician, not only those working inside the world's best resourced hospitals,” said Travis Zack, MD, PhD, Chief Medical Officer at OpenEvidence. “Working with academic partners like Penn Medicine, we're building and rigorously evaluating tools for the varied conditions under which most of the world actually practices medicine.”
“At Penn Medicine, our mission in pursuit of clinical excellence very much includes efforts to extend it to all areas where it can have the greatest impact,” said Srinath Adusumalli, MD, MSHP, MBMI, Vice President and Chief Health Information Officer and a cardiologist at the University of Pennsylvania Health System. “A partnership like this gives our clinicians, here at home and elsewhere, the ability to instantly surface the best available medical evidence in the context of the patient in front of them.”
Penn Medicine places a special focus on underserved communities, and Adusumalli expressed that integrating AI into more Penn Medicine programs, such as the existing clinical decision support program Penn Pathways, electronic consultation programs, as well as brick and mortar and virtual care programs, could expand access to specialized care in meaningful ways.
That includes the 25-year-old Botswana-UPenn Partnership, one of the longest-running academic health partnerships in sub-Saharan Africa. Working alongside the University of Botswana and Government of Botswana Ministry of Health, BUP has supported the training of Botswana's clinicians and researchers, helped establish postgraduate medical education programs, and conducted research on HIV/AIDS, oncology, and population health. “Building a customized set of tools in direct partnership with BUP clinicians and partners reflects a shared conviction that effective clinical AI will be shaped by local expertise and adapted for the conditions they practice in,” said Farouk Dako, MD, MPH, Director of the Botswana-UPenn Partnership and Strategic Advisor for Academic Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine Center for Global Health. “This collaboration offers a model for extending Penn Medicine’s resources and expertise to lower-resource settings through sustainable partnerships.”
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About Penn Medicine
Penn Medicine is a world leader in academic medicine, comprising the University of Pennsylvania Health System and the Perelman School of Medicine. Home to more than 49,000 team members, Penn Medicine treats nearly half a million emergency patients annually across seven hospitals in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Through the Botswana-UPenn Partnership, Penn has worked in Botswana since 2001, employing approximately 120 full-time clinical and research staff to build sustainable healthcare capacity in sub-Saharan Africa. Learn more at pennmedicine.org.
About OpenEvidence
OpenEvidence is the most popular AI for doctors in the United States. According to independent studies, more American physicians use OpenEvidence than all other AI platforms combined. OpenEvidence is trusted by millions of verified U.S. healthcare professionals making high-stakes clinical decisions at the point of care, with evidence that is sourced, cited, and grounded in peer-reviewed medical literature. Founded with the mission to organize and expand the world's collective medical knowledge, OpenEvidence is now used daily, on average, by the majority of physicians in the United States. OpenEvidence is free for all verified U.S. clinicians. Learn more at openevidence.com.