Best AI clinical decision support, in practice
Differential diagnosis, treatment guidance, drug interactions, evidence-grounded Q&A. The CDS landscape ranges from the UpToDate gold standard to physician-only OpenEvidence. We compared what clinicians actually use.
Which decision support are worth shortlisting in 2026?
Four tools survived our 2026 review for clinical use: OpenEvidence for physician q&a; UpToDate Expert AI for cds standard; Glass Health for ddx + reasoning tool; VisualDx for image-based ddx.
Four tools we actually recommend
Each pick wins a specific use case. The wrong question is “which is best”. The right question is “which fits my situation”. Skip past the ones not matching yours.
by OpenEvidence
Competitive· 42Used by ~65% of US physicians for grounded clinical questions.
Free for NPI-verified physicians. Pharma-ad funded. Every answer is literature-traceable. Embedded in Mt Sinai Epic.
- Free for NPI-verified physicians (ad-funded).
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by Wolters Kluwer
Tracked· 13The global institutional CDS reference, now with grounded generative Q&A.
$559/year individual or institutional licensing. Awards CME credit for queries (March 2026). Wolters Kluwer.
- July 2026 figure from search summaries of vendor and review sites. The official page was not read. Trainees $219 per year with proof.
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by Glass Health
Tracked· 17Built for clinical reasoning: DDx + literature-grounded Assessment & Plan.
Free Lite tier. Popular with med students for case-based reasoning practice. $20-200/mo Pro.
- $20/mo from
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by VisualDx
Competitive· 36Image-DDx with 32,000+ peer-reviewed images, strongest in dermatology.
Heavy ED + primary care use for rash/lesion identification. ~$399/year individual or institutional.
- Shown as $39.99 or $20.83 per month, billed annually. Free trial length is not stated. Annual plans that auto-renew have a 30-day grace period for a full refund of the renewed fee.
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What should clinicians look for when buying decision support?
The right tool depends on your workflow, your specialty, your budget, and your scale. Five criteria do most of the work narrowing your shortlist.
Evidence traceability
A CDS answer that can't show its sources is unsafe. UpToDate, OpenEvidence, and Atropos Health all link each statement back to peer-reviewed literature. Generic ChatGPT does not.
Update frequency
Guidelines change. DynaMed updates daily, UpToDate within weeks of major publications, niche tools often lag months. For acute care, this matters.
Specialty depth
VisualDx dominates dermatology, Vera Health emphasizes calculators, Glass Health emphasizes reasoning. No single CDS is best at everything.
Free vs paid
OpenEvidence and DXGPT are free. UpToDate Lexidrug and Micromedex are institutional-only. If you're not in a paying institution, your options are narrower.
EHR embed vs standalone
UpToDate, ClinicalKey, and Doximity GPT embed into Epic/Cerner workflows. Standalone tools require app-switching, which is a workflow tax most clinicians won't pay long-term.
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How do all 18 platforms compare side-by-side?
Pricing from vendor documentation, certifications verified against public attestations. Highlighted rows were directly evaluated by an MD on our editorial team within the past six months.
| Ref | Tool | From | Score | Compliance / EHR | Founded | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CD-001 |  Atropos Health | No public price. Talk to sales. | 15/100Tracked | SOC 2 (vendor-stated, site footer badge, report type not stated) | 2019 | Visit |
| CD-002 |  Bayesian Health | No public price. | 30/100Competitive | FDA 510(k) | — | Visit |
| CD-003 |  Elsevier | $39/mo | 21/100Niche fit | HIPAA (vendor-stated: "built to be HIPAA-compliant") EHR: Epic | — | Visit |
| CD-004 |  Corti | $1000/mo | 13/100Tracked | UK MHRA Class I (Corti Assistant MD)SOC 2 Type IIISO 27001 | — | Visit |
| CD-005 |  Docus | One patient. | 14/100Tracked | Aligned with HIPAA and SOC 2 (vendor wording) | — | Visit |
| CD-006 |  Doximity | Free for verified US clinicians, funded by advertising, per third-party summaries. Doximity's pages returned 403 when read. Also part of enterprise contracts with health systems. | 13/100Tracked | 2010 | Visit | |
| CD-007 |  Foundation 29 | Entirely free to use. | 9/100Tracked | GDPR & HIPAA ready (vendor wording) | — | Visit |
| CD-008 | EBSCO Health | Individual plan from the EBSCO store. | 16/100Tracked | EHR: Epic | — | Visit |
| CD-009 |  Glass Health | $20/mo | 17/100Tracked | 2021 | Visit | |
| CD-010 |  Brainstorm Ltd | $29/mo | 5/100Tracked | UKCA Class I (self-declared) | — | Visit |
| CD-011 |  Isabel Healthcare | EUR 139 incl. VAT. 30-day free trial. | 26/100Niche fit | 1999 | Visit | |
| CD-012 |  Medwise AI | Free for healthcare professionals and students per the login page. Limits not stated. | 4/100Tracked | — | Visit | |
| CD-013 |  Notable Health Inc. | No public price. There is no pricing page. | 28/100Niche fit | HITRUSTSOC 2 Type 2ISO/IEC 27001:2022 EHR: Epic, Oracle Health (Cerner), athenahealth | 2017 | Visit |
| CD-014 |  OpenEvidence | Free for NPI-verified physicians (ad-funded). | 42/100Competitive | 2022 | Visit | |
| CD-015 | Wolters Kluwer | No public price. Quote-based enterprise sale. | 6/100Tracked | — | Visit | |
| CD-016 | Wolters Kluwer | July 2026 figure from search summaries of vendor and review sites. The official page was not read. Trainees $219 per year with proof. | 13/100Tracked | — | Visit | |
| CD-017 | VH Vera Health | No public price. The pricing page shows no amounts. | 13/100Tracked | HIPAASOC 2GDPR | — | Visit |
| CD-018 |  VisualDx | Shown as $39.99 or $20.83 per month, billed annually. Free trial length is not stated. Annual plans that auto-renew have a 30-day grace period for a full refund of the renewed fee. | 36/100Competitive | 1999 | Visit |
Scroll horizontally to see all columns.
What do clinicians ask about decision support?
Sourced from public clinician discussions and internal-medicine forums, and editorial review. CDS tools vary widely by specialty, so we noted that throughout.
Browse all questionsDeeper articles
Suki pricing in 2026: what practices and health systems actually pay
Suki publishes no price. Third parties report $299 to $399 per user per month, and $350 to $500+ on enterprise contracts, as of October 2026.
Ambience Healthcare pricing in 2026: what health systems actually pay
Ambience publishes no price and ties its fees to outcomes. Third-party estimates run about $233 to $417 per provider per month, as of October 2026.
Abridge pricing in 2026: what health systems actually pay
Abridge publishes no price. Third-party estimates run from about $208 to $600 per clinician per month, plus implementation, as of October 2026.