OpenEvidence partners with Rwanda Biomedical Center and Resolve to Save Lives to adapt clinical decision support AI tool for use in low- and middle-income countries
MIAMI, FL— There is often an assumption in AI that one size fits all; that a model can be built with generalizable capabilities for any downstream scenario. But medicine is rarely one size fits all with different disease patterns, different treatment availability, and different clinical realities. OpenEvidence and Resolve to Save Lives recognized that medical practice in a setting like Rwanda looks very different from the United States and other developed countries.
OpenEvidence, a leading medical AI company for evidence-based clinical decision support, and Resolve to Save Lives (RTSL), which creates and scales solutions to the world’s deadliest health threats, today announced a partnership with the Rwanda Biomedical Center (RBC) to evaluate and adapt clinical decision support tools specifically for the needs of clinicians in low- and middle-income countries. The project, launched last fall, with 45 leading Rwandan physicians and nurse clinicians testing the platform and providing feedback to guide customization.
“Access to medical knowledge shouldn’t depend on geography,” said Daniel Nadler, CEO of OpenEvidence. “Our platform was built to help clinicians deliver better care at the point of need. That mission is even more critical in settings where doctors face resource constraints and serve large patient populations.”
The partnership addresses a critical gap in healthcare delivery in low- and middle-income countries, where clinicians often practice with limited access to current medical literature, specialist consultation, or continuing medical education. Although OpenEvidence is used by over 700K healthcare professionals in the US and 350K providers globally, the platform has historically been unavailable across much of Africa due to infrastructure and market dynamics. Clinicians in low- and middle-income countries often practice with limited access to current medical literature, specialist consultation, or continuing education.
Access alone does not solve the problem. A recommendation that assumes a US approved drug or diagnostic test isn’t useful for a clinician working with different resources and different patient population.This Rwanda pilot is designed to surface these gaps and identify ways to modify information retrieval to be most useful for clinical practice in these settings. 45 clinicians focus on understanding the right customization for OpenEvidence given specific knowledge requirements and resource constraints across global contexts, starting with Rwanda.
“This is an important tool to empower our clinicians to improve prevention and care by strengthening clinical decision-making. When responsibly integrated into our health system, artificial intelligence can help optimize clinical workflows, reduce inequities in access to quality care, and ultimately improve patient outcomes, while fully respecting ethical standards and data protection.”” said Dr. Claude Muvunyi, MD, PhD, Director General of the Rwanda Biomedical Center.
How it works:
OpenEvidence synthesizes peer-reviewed medical literature to support diagnostic and therapeutic decisions at the point of care. Every response is grounded in cited sources clinicians can verify. The Rwanda deployment provides free access via mobile and desktop. Clinicians in the pilot evaluate responses and flag where the platform falls short so OpenEvidence can adapt it for local context.
“This technology has the potential to improve the diagnosis and treatment of health conditions ranging from minor to life threatening”, said Dr. Tom Frieden, former CDC director and current CEO and President of RTSL. “It gives clinicians access to the same evidence-based resources available to doctors at major academic medical centers in the United States while recognizing and adapting to the context in Rwanda. I use OpenEvidence every day and I’m delighted that this resource is becoming available more widely.”
What’s next:
The partnership is a first step towards adapting clinical AI for low- and middle-income settings globally, guided by local clinicians. By offering equitable access to clinical decision support technology, the company ultimately hopes to improve outcomes for patients worldwide.
“This represents healthcare technology operating at its best, not as a luxury for wealthy institutions, but as a tool to reduce disparities in care quality,” Nadler added. “We’re encouraged by the early results and committed to expanding access to clinicians who need it most.”
About
OpenEvidence is the fastest-growing clinical decision support platform in the United States, and the most widely used medical search engine among U.S. clinicians. OpenEvidence is trusted by hundreds of thousands of verified healthcare professionals to make high-stakes clinical decisions at the point of care that are sourced, cited, and grounded in peer-reviewed medical literature. Founded with the mission to organize and expand global medical knowledge, OpenEvidence is actively used daily, on average, by over 40% of physicians in the United States, spanning more than 10,000 hospitals and medical centers nationwide.
The Rwanda Biomedical Center is Rwanda’s national health and research implementing agency. With a mission of promoting high-quality, affordable, and sustainable health care services to the population through evidence-based interventions and practices guided by ethics and professionalism, RBC conducts scientific research, provides diagnostic services, and implements innovative health interventions to protect the nation against diseases and other health threats.