MIAMI & SAN FRANCISCO — The American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) and OpenEvidence, the most widely-used medical AI platform among U.S. physicians, announced a new strategic partnership.
Under the agreement, OpenEvidence will integrate the Academy’s Preferred Practice Patterns® and Ophthalmic Technology Assessments directly into its platform. The partnership makes the Academy’s authoritative ophthalmology guidance available alongside the broader peer-reviewed medical literature in a cited, searchable workflow—at no cost to ophthalmologists.
With 32,000 medical doctors, AAO sets the standards for ophthalmic education and care. Its Preferred Practice Patterns® are among the most influential clinical guidelines in ophthalmology, developed through rigorous evidence review and continuously updated by subspecialty experts.
Under the partnership, OpenEvidence incorporates the Academy’s practice guidelines into its models and provides AAO with high-level usage information identifying topics of particular interest to ophthalmologists, as well as potential gaps in existing guidance. This feedback loop is designed to help the Academy prioritize future content development and ensure that its clinical resources remain responsive to how ophthalmologists actually practice.
The Benefits of Integration
“We evaluated the landscape carefully and chose OpenEvidence because of the rigor of their approach. Their models are trained on peer-reviewed literature, every answer is cited and verifiable and they have built the infrastructure to integrate specialty-specific guidance with the depth and nuance that our physicians need—at a level that sets the bar for all,” said Stephen D. McLeod, MD, CEO, American Academy of Ophthalmology.
“This partnership is about more than content integration. Together, we are building a feedback loop between how ophthalmologists practice and how the Academy responds to these needs, using real-world usage data to identify gaps and priorities we couldn’t see before. The age of AI offers opportunities for the medical profession to focus on real needs in real time, and the Academy intends to lead the way—with OpenEvidence as our partner.”
“Ophthalmology is a field where the depth of subspecialty knowledge is critical and the clinical guidelines reflect decades of rigorous evidence review. We’re excited to work with the Academy to trailblaze the next steps in expert guided practice, partnering to leverage AI tools and what we are learning about the real world clinical knowledge requirements in ophthalmology to support the Academy on their efforts,” said Travis Zack, MD, PhD, Chief Medical Officer of OpenEvidence. “This partnership reflects a shared commitment to ensuring that the best available evidence reaches clinicians at the point of care.”
A Clinical Resource
Structured as a license of AAO’s content, with the Academy maintaining sole intellectual and financial responsibility for creating, the partnership preserves the Academy’s independence in developing these guidelines while expanding its leadership as a clinical resource.
By embedding the Academy’s clinical guidance directly into the physician’s workflow, OpenEvidence and the Academy are helping ensure that ophthalmologists have trusted, specialty-specific evidence at the point of care, raising the standard for how clinical knowledge reaches the bedside.
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