American College of Rheumatology Partners with OpenEvidence to Expand Access to Evidence-Based Patient Education
The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and OpenEvidence have announced a new collaboration aimed at improving access to reliable, evidence-based patient education resources for people living with rheumatic diseases. The partnership was announced at ACR Convergence 2026 and is designed to help healthcare professionals provide patients and caregivers with trusted medical information during clinical consultations and throughout their treatment journeys.
Through this collaboration, ACR’s patient education materials will become available directly within the OpenEvidence medical artificial intelligence platform. The integration is expected to make it easier for rheumatologists, primary care physicians, and other medical specialists to identify and share authoritative educational resources when treating patients with rheumatic conditions.
The initiative focuses on strengthening communication between healthcare professionals and patients by making reliable educational information more accessible at the point of care. By combining ACR’s established medical education resources with OpenEvidence’s AI-powered clinical information platform, the organizations aim to help clinicians provide patients with information that supports a better understanding of their diagnoses, available treatments, and long-term disease management.
Expanding Access to Trusted Rheumatology Information
The American College of Rheumatology represents more than 10,600 rheumatology professionals worldwide and plays an important role in advancing rheumatology research, education, and clinical practice. Through its educational initiatives, the organization provides resources designed to support healthcare professionals and improve the quality of care for individuals affected by rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases.
OpenEvidence is a medical AI platform widely used by physicians across the United States. It provides clinicians with access to medical information and peer-reviewed scientific literature to support clinical decision-making and patient care.
The new collaboration brings these complementary capabilities together by incorporating ACR’s patient education fact sheets into the OpenEvidence platform. These resources cover a range of rheumatic diseases, medical conditions, and treatment options. They are available in both English and Spanish, allowing clinicians to connect with patients and caregivers through educational materials in two widely used languages.
One of the important features of the integration is that ACR educational resources will automatically appear within OpenEvidence when they are clinically relevant to a physician’s search or clinical question. The materials will be presented alongside peer-reviewed medical literature, helping clinicians access both scientific evidence and patient-friendly explanations in the same environment.
Each educational resource will also include a direct link to its original source. This allows healthcare professionals to verify the information, explore the complete educational material, and share the appropriate resource with patients.
The integration is intended to reduce the effort required to locate trustworthy patient education materials during busy clinical workflows. Instead of searching multiple websites or manually identifying educational documents, clinicians can access relevant ACR resources while reviewing medical information through OpenEvidence.
Addressing the Growing Need for Patient Education
Rheumatic diseases frequently require long-term medical attention, ongoing treatment, and regular communication between patients and healthcare professionals. Many conditions affect mobility, physical functioning, daily activities, and overall quality of life.
For individuals living with chronic rheumatic conditions, understanding the disease is an important part of managing their health. Patients often need information about symptoms, potential complications, available medications, treatment expectations, and lifestyle considerations.
The need for accessible patient education is particularly significant in the United States, where more than 53 million adults have been diagnosed with arthritis. This large patient population highlights the importance of providing understandable and medically reliable information that supports informed healthcare decisions.
Although rheumatologists specialize in diagnosing and treating rheumatic diseases, many patients initially receive care from primary care physicians and other medical specialists. These healthcare professionals also play an important role in identifying symptoms, coordinating treatment, monitoring disease progression, and referring patients to specialists when necessary.
As a result, patient education resources must be accessible beyond specialist rheumatology practices. Primary care physicians, internal medicine specialists, and other healthcare providers need reliable materials that can help them explain complex medical conditions in language patients can understand.
The ACR and OpenEvidence collaboration is designed to address this need by making established rheumatology education resources available to a broader group of clinicians.
By improving access to consistent educational information, the partnership aims to help patients understand their health conditions, recognize the importance of following prescribed treatments, and participate more actively in conversations about their medical care.
ACR Patient Fact Sheets Cover Diseases and Treatment Options
A major component of the partnership is the integration of ACR’s patient fact sheets into the OpenEvidence platform.
These educational documents are developed to explain rheumatic diseases and treatment-related topics in accessible language. They provide information that can help patients and caregivers better understand medical conditions and prepare for discussions with their healthcare teams.
The fact sheets cover several important aspects of rheumatic diseases, including:
- Causes of medical conditions: Information explaining what may contribute to the development of particular rheumatic diseases.
- Signs and symptoms: Descriptions of common symptoms and the ways different conditions may affect patients.
- Diagnosis: Educational information about how healthcare professionals evaluate and identify rheumatic conditions.
- Treatment options: Explanations of medications and other approaches used to manage different diseases.
- Patient questions: Suggested topics that patients and caregivers can discuss with healthcare professionals during appointments.
These materials are intended to make complicated medical information easier to understand without replacing professional medical advice.
For patients who have recently received a diagnosis, the resources can provide an introduction to their condition and explain important aspects of treatment. For individuals who have been managing a chronic disease for several years, the materials can serve as a reference when reviewing medications, discussing symptoms, or preparing for follow-up appointments.
Caregivers can also benefit from these resources because they frequently assist patients with medication schedules, appointment preparation, treatment decisions, and everyday disease management.
Resources Available in English and Spanish
Language accessibility is another important aspect of the collaboration.
ACR’s patient education materials included in the integration are available in English and Spanish. Offering resources in these two languages can help clinicians provide educational information to a broader range of patients and caregivers.
Clear communication is essential when discussing chronic medical conditions and treatment plans. Patients need to understand the purpose of their medications, potential treatment considerations, symptoms that may require medical attention, and the importance of maintaining regular contact with their healthcare providers.
When educational materials are available in a language patients can comfortably read, they may find it easier to revisit information after an appointment and prepare questions for future consultations.
The availability of English and Spanish fact sheets within OpenEvidence also gives clinicians a convenient way to identify relevant educational resources during clinical discussions.
This approach is particularly valuable in healthcare settings where physicians manage patients with different language preferences and educational needs.
The organizations believe that providing accessible, evidence-based resources can help improve the patient education experience and support more meaningful communication between patients and healthcare professionals.
Supporting Education Across Different Rheumatic Conditions
The integrated collection includes educational information about several specific diseases and treatment categories.
For example, the resources include information about gout and psoriatic arthritis, two conditions that can significantly affect patients’ health and daily activities.
Gout is a form of inflammatory arthritis associated with the accumulation of uric acid crystals in joints. Patients may experience sudden episodes of pain, swelling, redness, and tenderness. Understanding the condition, its symptoms, and available treatment approaches can help individuals participate more effectively in their long-term care.
Psoriatic arthritis is another chronic inflammatory condition that can affect people with psoriasis. It may involve joint pain, stiffness, swelling, and other symptoms that can interfere with everyday activities. Patient education can help individuals understand the relationship between the condition and psoriasis while preparing them for discussions about diagnosis and treatment.
In addition to disease-specific information, the ACR collection includes treatment-related educational materials covering medications such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and biologic medications.
NSAIDs are commonly used to help manage pain and inflammation in several rheumatic conditions. Biologic medications are used in the treatment of certain inflammatory diseases and target specific components of the immune system.
Providing educational materials about both diseases and treatments allows clinicians to address different types of patient questions. Individuals may need information about the condition itself, the reasons behind a particular medication recommendation, or what to expect during treatment.
By making these resources available together within OpenEvidence, the collaboration creates an additional pathway for physicians to connect medical evidence with patient-friendly educational information.
Improving Communication Between Physicians and Patients
Patient education is an important part of effective healthcare delivery, particularly for chronic conditions that require ongoing management.
A medical appointment may provide patients with information about a diagnosis, medication changes, laboratory tests, or treatment recommendations. However, patients may not remember every detail discussed during a consultation.
Having access to reliable educational materials after an appointment can help reinforce those conversations. Patients and caregivers can review the information at their own pace and use it to prepare questions for their next visit.
The ACR and OpenEvidence partnership is intended to support this process by giving clinicians a convenient way to share educational resources during the consultation itself.
William Harvey, MD, MSc, FACR, president of the American College of Rheumatology, emphasized the importance of providing patients and caregivers with information they can understand, trust, and revisit after medical appointments.
He explained that the collaboration will help clinicians connect individuals with educational resources that reinforce important discussions about rheumatic diseases and their treatments.
The broader objective is to help patients become better informed and more prepared to participate in decisions concerning their healthcare.
This approach also recognizes that patient education is not limited to the moment a diagnosis is delivered. People living with chronic rheumatic diseases may need continued access to information as their symptoms, treatment plans, and healthcare needs change over time.
Expanding the Reach of Rheumatology Expertise Through AI
The collaboration also demonstrates how medical technology platforms can help healthcare professionals access established educational resources within their existing clinical information workflows.
Artificial intelligence is increasingly being incorporated into healthcare information systems to help physicians locate medical literature, review clinical evidence, and access relevant information more efficiently.
However, the usefulness of these technologies also depends on the quality and reliability of the information they provide.
By integrating ACR-developed patient fact sheets into OpenEvidence, the organizations are connecting an established professional medical organization’s educational content with an AI-powered platform used by physicians.
The integration does not replace the clinician’s responsibility to assess individual patient needs or make appropriate medical decisions. Instead, it provides another resource that healthcare professionals can use to support discussions and improve access to patient education.
Vishal Patel, MD, rheumatologist and Vice President of Clinical Partnerships and AI Education at OpenEvidence, highlighted the importance of patient understanding in managing long-term rheumatic diseases.
He noted that patients’ outcomes and experiences are influenced in part by how well they understand their conditions and treatments between medical appointments.
Patel also emphasized the authority of the American College of Rheumatology and the value of bringing its patient fact sheets into OpenEvidence.
According to Patel, the integration will allow clinicians caring for individuals with rheumatic diseases, regardless of their practice setting, to share trusted educational information in English or Spanish when it is relevant to patient care.
This broader availability is especially important because rheumatic diseases are not managed exclusively by rheumatology specialists. Primary care physicians and other medical professionals also contribute to the diagnosis, treatment, and ongoing management of these conditions.
Strengthening Long-Term Disease Management
For many patients, managing a rheumatic disease involves more than receiving a diagnosis and beginning treatment. It often requires long-term monitoring, medication management, follow-up consultations, and adjustments to treatment strategies.
Patients may have questions about how their condition progresses, why certain medications are prescribed, how treatments work, and what symptoms they should discuss with their healthcare providers.
Educational resources can help address these questions by providing information that patients can review outside the clinical setting.
The ACR and OpenEvidence collaboration aims to make these resources easier for clinicians to identify and share, supporting continuity between medical appointments.
The availability of disease-specific and treatment-specific information also provides flexibility. Physicians can select materials that correspond to a patient’s diagnosis, current treatment, or particular concerns.
For caregivers, these resources can offer additional guidance when supporting someone with a chronic rheumatic condition. Better access to understandable information may help caregivers participate more effectively in discussions with healthcare teams and support patients in following their treatment plans.
Importantly, these educational materials are designed to complement, rather than replace, personalized medical guidance from qualified healthcare professionals.
Advancing Patient-Centered Rheumatology Care
The partnership between the American College of Rheumatology and OpenEvidence represents an effort to bring professional medical education resources closer to the point of patient care.
By integrating ACR’s patient fact sheets into an AI-powered medical platform, the organizations are working to make reliable information more accessible to physicians and the individuals they treat.
The initiative addresses several important priorities in modern healthcare, including patient education, evidence-based clinical practice, language accessibility, and better communication between medical professionals and patients.
For the ACR, the collaboration provides another opportunity to extend the reach of its educational resources beyond traditional rheumatology settings.
For OpenEvidence, the integration adds established patient-facing educational materials to its clinical information environment, giving physicians another resource to support conversations about complex medical conditions.
Ultimately, the organizations aim to strengthen the connection between medical evidence, accessible patient education, and informed participation in healthcare decisions.
As the number of individuals living with arthritis and other rheumatic diseases continues to highlight the importance of long-term disease management, access to understandable and trustworthy medical information remains essential.
Through this collaboration, ACR and OpenEvidence are working to help rheumatologists, primary care physicians, and other specialists provide patients and caregivers with educational resources that support better understanding of rheumatic diseases and their treatments.
The initiative reinforces the importance of combining professional medical expertise with accessible educational tools so patients can remain informed, engaged, and prepared throughout their healthcare journeys.
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