DR. INFO and OpenEvidence, side by side
Available in Italy
DR. INFO Yes, on the web and the iPhone app
OpenEvidence No, access from the EU ended 28 April 2026
Answers in Italian
DR. INFO Yes, in the language you ask in
OpenEvidence No, 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 and national guidelines, retrieved per question; SNLG guidelines can be asked about
OpenEvidence US-centred
Drug information
DR. INFO FDA and EMA authorised sources, EMA SmPC; the AIFA database remains the Italian reference
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 Italy
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 Italy | Yes, on the web and the iPhone app | No, access from the EU ended 28 April 2026 |
| Answers in Italian | Yes, in the language you ask in | No, 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 and national guidelines, retrieved per question; SNLG guidelines can be asked about | US-centred |
| Drug information | FDA and EMA authorised sources, EMA SmPC; the AIFA database remains the Italian reference | 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 Italy | 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 Italy in 2026?
- No. OpenEvidence ended app access in the European Union and the United Kingdom on 28 April 2026, and access from addresses in Italy 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].
- Is there an Italian version of OpenEvidence?
- No. OpenEvidence never offered an Italian interface and answered in English from US-oriented sources. DR. INFO answers in the language you ask in, so a question in Italian gets an answer in Italian.
- Does the OpenEvidence app still work in Italy?
- 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][9].
- What do Italian doctors use instead of OpenEvidence?
- The national references remain: the guidelines of the Sistema Nazionale Linee Guida at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità [4] and the AIFA drug database with the RCP of every medicine authorised in Italy [5]. They are documents to read, not answers to a question about a patient. For a cited answer in Italian, DR. INFO is the alternative built for Europe.
- What does Italy's AI law mean for clinical AI tools?
- Law 132 of 2025, in force since 10 October 2025, says that AI systems in healthcare support prevention, diagnosis, treatment and therapeutic choice, while the decision remains with the doctor, and that systems and data must be reliable and checked periodically [6]. That is how DR. INFO works: a cited answer that the clinician checks and decides on.
- Where is DR. INFO's data hosted, and who oversees data protection in Italy?
- DR. INFO is hosted in the European Union under the GDPR. In Italy the supervisory authority is the Garante per la protezione dei dati personali [10]. 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 earn ECM credits?
- No. ECM credits come from providers accredited in the Educazione Continua in Medicina system run by Agenas [11]. DR. INFO is a clinical reference tool, not an ECM provider.
- Is DR. INFO the best OpenEvidence alternative for Italian doctors?
- For a cited answer to a clinical question, available in Italy 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 [7][8][12].
- 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 [13].
- Is DR. INFO free for doctors in Italy?
- 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 [12]. It supports clinical decisions; the decision stays with the clinician.
OpenEvidence is not coming back to Italy on any announced date, there was never an Italian version, and the SNLG guidelines and the AIFA database were never an answer engine. For an Italian clinician who wants a cited answer to a clinical question in Italian, 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.Eurostat. Healthcare personnel statistics: physicians (2024 data, extracted July 2026).
- 4.Istituto Superiore di Sanità. Sistema Nazionale Linee Guida (SNLG).
- 5.AIFA. Banca Dati Farmaci: riassunto delle caratteristiche del prodotto (RCP) e foglio illustrativo.
- 6.Legge 23 settembre 2025, n. 132: disposizioni e deleghe in materia di intelligenza artificiale (GU n. 223, 25 settembre 2025), articoli 7 e 8.
- 7.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.
- 8.Arora RK, Wei J, Soskin Hicks R, et al. HealthBench: Evaluating Large Language Models Toward Improved Human Health. OpenAI. 2025.
- 9.OpenEvidence exits Europe, highlighting divide in health AI rules. Telehealth.org. 2026.
- 10.Garante per la protezione dei dati personali.
- 11.Agenas. Educazione Continua in Medicina (ECM).
- 12.Regulation (EU) 2017/745 of the European Parliament and of the Council on medical devices (EU MDR). Official Journal of the European Union. 2017.
- 13.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.