UTMB Embeds OpenEvidence AI Inside Its Electronic Health Record

The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) and OpenEvidence announced a collaboration on September 22, 2026, that embeds OpenEvidence’s evidence-based AI platform inside UTMB’s electronic health record, with more than half of UTMB clinicians reported as active users of the tool for clinical decision support.

The announcement, datelined Miami, Florida, said the integration gives UTMB physicians and other clinical users secure access to cited medical evidence from within the electronic health record.

How the Integration Works

The integration went live at UTMB in March 2026 and was built to put AI-enabled information resources inside the clinical workflows already in use. OpenEvidence is embedded within UTMB’s electronic health record environment, and clinicians sign in with their standard UTMB enterprise credentials rather than establishing separate accounts or moving between disconnected applications. The arrangement keeps the platform within UTMB’s existing clinical workflow and enterprise security envelope.

After signing in, a clinician can type a clinical question in natural language and receive a response that carries citations to medical literature, clinical guidelines, and other sources. According to the announcement, the design pairs the accessibility of a generative AI interface with the grounding in evidence that clinical decision-making requires.

UTMB operates hospitals on four campuses in addition to more than 100 clinics across Southeast Texas. The announcement characterizes rapid access to current medical knowledge as particularly valuable across that footprint, stating that clinicians practicing anywhere in UTMB’s network can reach the same evidence-based AI capabilities regardless of physical location.

Reported Adoption Since the March Launch

The announcement reports strong growth since March in both how many clinicians use OpenEvidence and the volume of clinical queries they submit. More than half of UTMB’s clinicians are active users of OpenEvidence for clinical decision support, and the reported adoption data show many clinicians have made the tool part of their workflow.

Peter McCaffrey, MD, MS, FCAP, Vice President and Chief Digital and AI Officer at UTMB, said healthcare has plenty of promising AI tools, and that the harder task is making them genuinely usable in clinical practice while maintaining the security, governance, and trust that healthcare demands. “The growth in utilization since launch suggests that when you remove friction and put useful AI where clinicians actually work, they use it,” he said, adding that UTMB’s implementation gives clinicians AI-generated information that includes citations to medical literature and guidelines.

UTMB’s Broader AI Strategy

The announcement frames the deployment as part of UTMB’s broader strategy for bringing AI into healthcare delivery. Under that strategy, the announcement says, UTMB’s approach is to establish an enterprise environment — rather than a collection of standalone applications — in which validated AI capabilities are securely folded into clinical and operational workflows, appropriately governed, and judged on their real-world use and impact.

UTMB’s artificial intelligence program page documents that institutional effort, including the launch of the UTMB Artificial Intelligence Council and the appointment of McCaffrey as the institution’s inaugural Chief AI Officer. The page describes him as vice president and chief digital officer leading UTMB’s AI initiatives to enhance education, research, clinical outcomes, and operational efficiencies. He has been with UTMB since 2018, serving as Director of Laboratory Information Services, Pathology Informatics, Bioinformatics and AI and as an assistant professor in the Departments of Pathology and Radiology. According to the page, he holds a medical degree from Johns Hopkins University, a master’s degree in biomedical data science from Stanford University, and a graduate certificate in artificial intelligence from Stanford, and he co-chairs the University of Texas Healthcare AI Collaborative, which works to advance AI in healthcare across the UT System. The page also notes that he has been recognized as a Texas Monthly SuperDoctors Rising Star for four consecutive years and is the author of An Introduction to Healthcare Informatics: Building Data-Driven Tools.

Among the program elements listed on the page are a joint policy, an approved generative AI tools list, external AI intake and internal AI project request processes, and the UTMB AI Learning Hub.

Travis Zack, MD, PhD, Chief Medical Officer at OpenEvidence, said UTMB’s approach reflects a clear understanding that clinical technology succeeds when it matches the way clinicians already work. “By integrating OpenEvidence into the clinical environment and simplifying secure access, UTMB is demonstrating how health systems can move evidence-based AI from an interesting technology to an everyday clinical capability,” he said.

The announcement also says the deployment gives UTMB an opportunity to study, at scale, how clinicians work with a newer generation of AI-enabled knowledge tools. As adoption grows, UTMB will keep evaluating utilization and clinician experience and will look for opportunities to improve the delivery of evidence and clinical intelligence at the point of care.