DR. INFO and OpenEvidence, side by side
Available in Ireland
DR. INFO Yes, on the web and the iPhone app
OpenEvidence No, access from the EU ended 28 April 2026
Language
DR. INFO English, and any other language you ask in
OpenEvidence English only
How it answers
DR. INFO A written answer built from retrieved guidelines and literature, each statement cited
OpenEvidence A written answer with citations, US-oriented sources
Data hosting
DR. INFO European Union, under GDPR
OpenEvidence United States
Guideline sources
DR. INFO European, UK and national guidelines, retrieved per question; Irish National Clinical Guidelines can be asked about
OpenEvidence US-centred
Drug information
DR. INFO FDA and EMA authorised sources, EMA SmPC; HPRA and medicines.ie remain the Irish references
OpenEvidence US sources
Documentation
DR. INFO Scribe with SOAP notes and discharge letters in the same product
OpenEvidence None
Regulatory status
DR. INFO CE marked medical device under EU MDR 2017/745, which applies directly in Ireland
OpenEvidence Not CE marked
HealthBench Hard (same 100 examples)
DR. INFO 0.72
OpenEvidence 0.49
Cost
DR. INFO Free tier, paid plans
OpenEvidence Was free for verified clinicians
| DR. INFO | OpenEvidence | |
|---|---|---|
| Available in Ireland | Yes, on the web and the iPhone app | No, access from the EU ended 28 April 2026 |
| Language | English, and any other language you ask in | English only |
| How it answers | A written answer built from retrieved guidelines and literature, each statement cited | A written answer with citations, US-oriented sources |
| Data hosting | European Union, under GDPR | United States |
| Guideline sources | European, UK and national guidelines, retrieved per question; Irish National Clinical Guidelines can be asked about | US-centred |
| Drug information | FDA and EMA authorised sources, EMA SmPC; HPRA and medicines.ie remain the Irish references | US sources |
| Documentation | Scribe with SOAP notes and discharge letters in the same product | None |
| Regulatory status | CE marked medical device under EU MDR 2017/745, which applies directly in Ireland | Not CE marked |
| HealthBench Hard (same 100 examples) | 0.72 | 0.49 |
| Cost | Free tier, paid plans | Was free for verified clinicians |
How DR. INFO compares with OpenEvidence
Rubric graded scores on difficult, open ended clinical conversations, from the same 100 example run. Higher is better.
Source: Ravichandran S, et al. OpenAI’s HealthBench in Action. arXiv:2509.02594.
Frequently asked questions
- Is OpenEvidence available in Ireland in 2026?
- No. OpenEvidence ended app access in the European Union and the United Kingdom on 28 April 2026, and access from addresses in Ireland has been blocked since, on the web and in the app. The company cited regulatory uncertainty around European AI rules and has not announced a date for a return [1][2].
- Does the OpenEvidence app still work in Ireland?
- No. Sign-in and access from EU addresses have been blocked since April 2026, in the app and in the browser. It is a deliberate block, not an outage, so reinstalling or switching devices does not help [1].
- Why did OpenEvidence leave Europe?
- OpenEvidence pointed to regulatory uncertainty around European rules for AI in healthcare. Commentators have linked the exit to the EU AI Act and to the medical device rules that apply to clinical decision support in the EU [2][10].
- Is Ireland treated like the UK or like the EU for OpenEvidence?
- Both are blocked. OpenEvidence ended access in the EU, which includes Ireland, and in the UK on the same day, 28 April 2026 [1]. For a UK view, see our page on OpenEvidence in the UK.
- What do Irish doctors use instead of OpenEvidence?
- The national references remain: the National Clinical Guidelines of the National Clinical Effectiveness Committee [5], and the HPRA and medicines.ie databases of SmPCs and leaflets [6][7]. They are documents to read, not answers to a question about a patient. For a cited answer drawn from guidelines and literature, DR. INFO is the alternative built for Europe.
- Can DR. INFO answer questions about Irish National Clinical Guidelines?
- DR. INFO retrieves European, UK and national guidelines per question and links the source in every answer. Coverage is broad but not complete for any single body, so check the cited document; the NCEC collection on gov.ie remains the reference for Irish National Clinical Guidelines [5].
- Where is DR. INFO's data hosted, and who oversees data protection in Ireland?
- DR. INFO is hosted in the European Union under the GDPR. In Ireland the supervisory authority is the Data Protection Commission [11]. Whether a tool may be used with identifiable patient data is decided by each practice or hospital and its data protection officer.
- Does using DR. INFO count towards the Professional Competence Scheme?
- Not automatically. CPD credits under the Medical Council's Professional Competence Scheme are recorded through the postgraduate training bodies, with 50 credits a scheme year [12]. Check with your training body how self-directed learning is recorded.
- Is DR. INFO the best OpenEvidence alternative for Irish doctors?
- For a cited answer to a clinical question, available in Ireland today, yes: DR. INFO is built in Europe, hosted in the EU, CE marked under the EU MDR, free to start, and scored 0.72 against OpenEvidence's 0.49 on the same 100 HealthBench Hard examples [8][9][13].
- How does DR. INFO cite its answers?
- Each statement in an answer links to the guideline, study or drug label it comes from, so you can open the source and check the wording yourself. In a prospective pilot study published in Cureus in 2026, physicians at the point of care valued the traceability of sources most [14].
- Is DR. INFO free for doctors in Ireland?
- There is a free tier for doctors and medical students with 30 clinical questions a month, a student plan and a physician plan without a question limit. DR. INFO runs in the browser at app.drinfo.ai and as an iPhone app.
- Is DR. INFO a certified medical device?
- Yes. DR. INFO is CE marked as a medical device under EU MDR 2017/745 and is developed and operated by Synduct GmbH in Munich [13]. It supports clinical decisions; the decision stays with the clinician.
OpenEvidence is not coming back to Ireland on any announced date, and the National Clinical Guidelines and SmPC databases were never an answer engine. For an Irish clinician who wants a cited answer to a clinical question, DR. INFO is the tool to try first: built in Europe, hosted in the EU, CE marked, free to start, and scoring higher than OpenEvidence on the hardest public benchmark of clinical answers.
References
- 1.Breaking: OpenEvidence app access terminated in the UK and EU. Telehealth and Telecare Aware. 28 April 2026.
- 2.The US-based medical search engine OpenEvidence is down in Europe: a commentary on regulatory complexities. Intelligence-Based Medicine. 2026.
- 3.Medical Council of Ireland. Medical Workforce Intelligence Report 2025, as reported by the Medical Independent.
- 4.Eurostat. Healthcare personnel statistics: physicians (2024 data, extracted July 2026).
- 5.Department of Health. National Clinical Guidelines (National Clinical Effectiveness Committee).
- 6.Health Products Regulatory Authority. Find a medicine (SmPC and package leaflet).
- 7.medicines.ie. Summaries of product characteristics and patient information leaflets.
- 8.Ravichandran S, Kumar S, Corga Da Silva R, Romano M, et al. OpenAI’s HealthBench in Action: Evaluating an LLM-Based Medical Assistant on Realistic Clinical Queries. arXiv:2509.02594. 2026.
- 9.Arora RK, Wei J, Soskin Hicks R, et al. HealthBench: Evaluating Large Language Models Toward Improved Human Health. OpenAI. 2025.
- 10.OpenEvidence exits Europe, highlighting divide in health AI rules. Telehealth.org. 2026.
- 11.Data Protection Commission (Ireland).
- 12.Irish College of General Practitioners. Professional Competence Scheme: frequently asked questions.
- 13.Regulation (EU) 2017/745 of the European Parliament and of the Council on medical devices (EU MDR). Official Journal of the European Union. 2017.
- 14.Corga Da Silva R, Romano M, Mendes T, et al. DR. INFO at the Point of Care: A Prospective Pilot Study of Physician-Perceived Value of an Agentic Artificial Intelligence Clinical Assistant. Cureus. 2026.