Glass Health vs UpToDate Expert AI — 2026 Comparison

Glass Health provides real-time clinical insights — including differential diagnosis, suggested history questions, and potential next steps — alongside assessment and plans and clinical documentation during patient encounters, starting free. UpToDate Expert AI adds a conversational AI layer to Wolters Kluwer’s trusted 30-year reference library (3M+ clinicians), but it requires manual lookup and does not generate structured clinical reasoning or ambient documentation.

UpToDate has been a clinical reference for 30 years — 13,000+ topics, 7,600+ physician authors, 3 million+ clinicians worldwide. Expert AI adds a generative conversational layer on top of that trusted library. Glass Health takes a fundamentally different approach: instead of answering questions you type into a search box, it listens to your patient encounters, generates differential diagnoses and assessment plans in real time, and produces documentation — embedding clinical reasoning into the workflow rather than requiring you to leave it.

Key Takeaways

Glass Health delivers real-time clinical insights — including differential diagnosis support, suggested history questions, and potential next steps — along with assessment and plans and six types of clinical documentation during patient encounters. UpToDate Expert AI answers clinical questions from a curated evidence base but does not generate documentation or diagnostic reasoning.
UpToDate is a widely used clinical reference in medicine — used by 3+ million clinicians in 190+ countries with 30+ years of editorial credibility. Expert AI adds a conversational AI interface to this content.
Glass Health integrates with Epic, eClinicalWorks, and Athena via SMART on FHIR, pulling patient context in and pushing documentation back to the chart. UpToDate offers embedded search links and context-sensitive HL7 infobutton lookups within Epic, Oracle Cerner, MEDITECH, Allscripts, eClinicalWorks, NextGen, and InterSystems TrakCare — surfacing relevant reference content at the point of care. Glass Health’s bidirectional SMART on FHIR integration differs by exchanging patient-specific data with the EHR, rather than surfacing reference links.
UpToDate Expert AI explicitly does not accept protected health information (PHI). Glass Health accepts patient-specific context — including uploaded records, labs, and imaging — to generate personalized clinical reasoning.

What Is UpToDate Expert AI?

UpToDate by Wolters Kluwer is a widely used clinical reference tool in medicine. For over 30 years, clinicians have used UpToDate to look up evidence-based guidance across 13,000+ clinical topics, authored and peer-reviewed by 7,600+ physicians. The platform is used by 3+ million clinicians in 190+ countries (Wolters Kluwer, 2025).

UpToDate Expert AI, announced in September 2025 and available in Q4 2025, adds a generative AI conversational layer on top of UpToDate’s existing evidence base. Instead of searching topics and reading articles, clinicians can ask clinical questions in natural language and receive AI-generated answers sourced exclusively from UpToDate’s curated content — not the open web (Wolters Kluwer, 2025).

How Expert AI Works

Every Expert AI answer includes structured transparency features:

Assumptions: Frames the question and clarifies clinical context
Rationale: Explains reasoning behind recommendations
Thinking: Shows which UpToDate topics were referenced
Sources: Direct links to supporting UpToDate content
Considerations: Highlights important details and common missteps
Learn More: Suggests follow-up questions

In November 2025, Wolters Kluwer integrated Lexidrug medication data into Expert AI, adding drug-related queries covering adverse reactions, contraindications, pregnancy/breastfeeding safety, and QTc prolongation comparisons across approximately 3,000 drug topics (Wolters Kluwer, 2025).

Who Gets Expert AI

Expert AI is not available on all UpToDate subscription tiers:

UpToDate Pro Plus (individual, U.S. and Canada) — includes Expert AI
UpToDate Enterprise Edition (institutional) — includes Expert AI
Trainee subscriptions (U.S. and Canada) — includes Expert AI
Standard UpToDate subscriptions do not include Expert AI

As of early 2026, Expert AI has been deployed across 50+ major U.S. health systems with approximately 250,000 active users, adopted by 70% of UpToDate’s largest enterprise health systems (Wolters Kluwer, 2025).

How Does Glass Health Compare to UpToDate Expert AI on Features?

UpToDate Expert AI is a passive reference — clinicians must leave their workflow to look up answers. Glass Health takes the opposite approach: it actively generates differential diagnoses, assessment and plans, and clinical documentation during the encounter itself, integrating CDS into the workflow rather than sitting beside it.

Feature	Glass Health	UpToDate Expert AI
Primary function	Full clinical workflow platform	AI-powered clinical reference Q&A
Ambient scribing	Core feature; real-time listening with live insights	No
Differential diagnosis	Structured three-tier DDx (Most Likely / Expanded / Can’t Miss)	No structured DDx; can discuss differentials in chat
Assessment & plan	Dedicated A&P generation with problem-based reasoning and citations	No A&P generation
Clinical Q&A	Built-in with agentic search of clinical guidelines and medical literature + FDA drug database	Core feature; conversational Q&A from UpToDate content
Evidence source	Clinical guidelines and medical literature	13,000+ curated UpToDate topics (closed corpus)
Answer transparency	In-text citations with reference lists	Assumptions, rationale, thinking, sources, considerations
Documentation generation	6 types (H&P, Progress, Clinic, Discharge, Instructions, Handout)	No documentation generation
Custom templates	Full template customization (DDx, A&P, documentation)	No
Longitudinal patient encounters	Yes — patient context persists across encounters	No — explicitly prohibits PHI input
EHR integration	Epic, eClinicalWorks, Athena (SMART on FHIR — bidirectional)	Embedded search links and HL7 infobutton lookups in Epic, Oracle Cerner, MEDITECH, Allscripts, eClinicalWorks, NextGen, InterSystems TrakCare (reference surfacing)
Drug information	FDA drug database via clinical Q&A	Lexidrug integration (~3,000 drug topics)
Medical calculators	No	220+ built-in calculators
Patient education	Patient Handout generation	1,500+ patient education topics (Spanish, Arabic, Chinese); Lexidrug patient information in 20+ languages
CME/CE credits	No	Yes — AMA PRA Category 1
Deep Reasoning	Toggle for maximum analytical depth on complex cases	No
Mobile app	Web-based	iOS and Android
Languages	English	English (patient education in Spanish, Arabic, Chinese; Lexidrug patient information in 20+ languages)

What Can UpToDate Expert AI Do Well?

UpToDate’s 30-year track record is earned. Here’s where it delivers:

Strong editorial credibility. UpToDate’s 13,000+ clinical topics are authored and continuously updated by 7,600+ physician authors, editors, and peer reviewers. Expert AI draws exclusively from this curated corpus, not the open web, which virtually eliminates hallucination risk.

Structured answer transparency. Every Expert AI response shows its assumptions, rationale, reasoning process, referenced topics, key considerations, and direct source links. Clinicians can independently verify every recommendation — a trust model few AI tools match.

Deep drug information. The November 2025 Lexidrug integration gives Expert AI access to approximately 3,000 drug topics covering adverse reactions, contraindications, pregnancy safety, and drug comparisons. Combined with 220+ medical calculators, UpToDate provides thorough pharmacological reference.

Broad institutional adoption. Expert AI is already deployed across 50+ major U.S. health systems. This institutional presence is a meaningful factor for enterprise buyers evaluating vendor stability.

Comprehensive content ecosystem. Beyond clinical topics: 1,500+ patient education materials in multiple languages, Pathways (interactive clinical decision guides), lab interpretation monographs, 37,000+ medical graphics, and integrated CME credits. Few other platforms match this breadth of clinical reference content.

Global scale. 3+ million clinicians in 190+ countries. Enterprise Edition is now available in EMEA and APAC markets.

What Can’t UpToDate Expert AI Do That Glass Health Can?

Thirty years of editorial excellence does not translate into workflow tools. Expert AI remains a reference layer, and that creates specific limitations for clinicians who need active support during encounters:

Documentation burden goes unaddressed. Expert AI cannot listen to a patient encounter, transcribe a conversation, or produce a clinical note. It operates entirely outside the documentation workflow. For the 16% of providers who cite documentation and charting as their primary driver of burnout (Tebra, 2024), Expert AI offers no relief. Glass Health’s ambient scribe captures the encounter in real time, generating complete notes across six documentation types.

Structured DDx does not exist. If a clinician asks Expert AI about a differential, the response is a conversational paragraph grounded in UpToDate topics — not a tiered diagnostic framework. Glass Health automatically generates a three-tier DDx (Most Likely, Expanded Differential, Can’t Miss) with diagnostic next steps for each category, and it refines the differential live as new exam findings or lab results surface during the visit.

A&P generation is entirely absent. Expert AI does not synthesize patient data into a structured Assessment & Plan. It cannot take a patient’s history, exam, and labs and output problem-based assessments, treatment recommendations, and evidence-cited management plans. Glass Health builds the complete A&P from encounter-specific data, organized by clinical problem.

PHI is explicitly prohibited. This is a fundamental architectural constraint. UpToDate Expert AI does not accept protected health information — users are instructed not to enter patient age, labs, vitals, medications, or medical history (VUMC, 2026). Every answer is general-purpose guidance, not personalized reasoning. Glass Health accepts patient-specific context — uploaded records, labs, imaging, specialist notes — and tailors its DDx, A&P, and clinical insights to the individual patient.

No clinical notes, no discharge summaries, no patient handouts. Expert AI produces zero documentation output. No SOAP notes, no H&P, no progress notes, no discharge summaries, no patient instructions. Glass Health generates all six documentation types, formatted to clinician-configured templates.

Encounter-time guidance does not exist. Expert AI requires the clinician to step away from the patient, open a separate interface, type a question, and read the response. Glass Health operates in the opposite direction: it delivers live differential diagnoses, prompts overlooked history questions, and highlights management considerations while the physician is still in the room with the patient.

Every query starts from zero. Expert AI has no concept of a returning patient. It cannot recall last month’s labs, prior imaging, or medication changes. Glass Health maintains patient context across encounters — uploaded records, labs, and imaging carry forward — so the AI’s reasoning compounds over time rather than resetting with every visit.

Pricing Comparison

	Glass Health	UpToDate
Free tier	Lite — $0/month (limited CDS + limited ambient scribing)	No free tier
Starter	$20/month ($18/month annual) — extended CDS + ambient scribing	—
Pro	$90/month ($81/month annual) — unlimited scribing, CDS, all documentation types	UpToDate Pro — ~$499–$579/year (no Expert AI)
Max	$200/month ($180/month annual) — everything + EHR integration (Epic, eCW, Athena)	—
Expert AI access	All features included in all tiers	Pro Plus (premium tier, pricing not public) or Enterprise Edition
Enterprise	Custom pricing available	Enterprise Edition — custom pricing, 20+ clinicians
CME credits	Not included	Included in Pro and Pro Plus subscriptions; not available at trainee rates
Student/trainee	—	Significant discounts (50–70% through AMA, ACOFP)
Association discounts	—	15–25% off via AAFP, ACOFP, AAPA
Contract	Month-to-month or annual	Annual

The cost comparison is not straightforward because these tools deliver different types of ROI. UpToDate’s value is measured in knowledge access, editorial credibility, and CME credits. Glass Health’s value is measured in documentation time savings, reduced after-hours charting, and workflow efficiency. Clinical decision support systems integrated into workflows improve diagnostic processes and patient outcomes (Nature, 2020), and nearly all evaluated CDS systems demonstrate improvement in the diagnostic process (AHRQ, 2024).

Glass Health’s free Lite tier provides an entry point that UpToDate does not offer. For clinicians who need both ambient documentation and clinical decision support, Glass Health consolidates both into a single platform cost.

Try Glass Health free — CDS and scribing in one workflow →

When Should You Choose UpToDate Expert AI Over Glass Health?

If you don’t need active clinical decision support during encounters and specifically want a traditional reference tool for evidence review, UpToDate serves that purpose. Choose UpToDate when:

Your primary need is deep clinical reference content — 13,000+ topics across 25 specialties, authored by 7,600+ physicians
You value CME/CE credit accrual integrated into your clinical reference workflow
Your organization is an academic medical center or training program where editorial depth and educational resources matter most
You already have a separate ambient documentation solution (Freed, Abridge, DAX, Suki) and need a standalone reference tool
You need in-depth drug information (Lexidrug, 3,000 drug topics) and 220+ medical calculators
You need patient education materials to share with patients in multiple languages

When Should You Choose Glass Health Over UpToDate Expert AI?

Choose Glass Health when:

Your primary bottleneck is documentation burden, after-hours charting, and workflow fragmentation
You need a single platform that handles ambient scribing, differential diagnosis, assessment and plans, clinical Q&A, and documentation — without switching between tools
EHR integration is a requirement, with structured data flowing between Glass and Epic, eClinicalWorks, or Athena
You want patient-specific clinical reasoning — not general reference answers, but differential diagnoses, A&P, and documentation generated from the actual patient encounter
Your practice needs patient context persistence — uploaded records, labs, and imaging that carry forward across visits
You want to reduce after-hours charting through purpose-built ambient documentation with real-time clinical insights
You’re exploring other reference alternatives: See how Glass Health compares to OpenEvidence for free evidence synthesis or AMBOSS for medical education and boards.

Start with Glass Health’s free Lite tier →

FAQ

What is UpToDate Expert AI?

UpToDate Expert AI is a generative AI conversational feature launched in Q4 2025 that sits on top of UpToDate’s clinical reference content. Clinicians can ask clinical questions in natural language and receive AI-generated answers sourced exclusively from UpToDate’s curated, physician-authored content — not the open web. It includes structured transparency features (assumptions, rationale, thinking, sources). Expert AI is available through UpToDate Pro Plus (individual) and Enterprise Edition (institutional) subscriptions.

Does UpToDate Expert AI replace Glass Health?

No. Expert AI is a clinical reference Q&A tool — it answers questions from UpToDate’s knowledge base. It does not generate clinical documentation, listen to patient encounters, produce differential diagnoses, create assessment and plans, or accept patient-specific data. Glass Health does all of these. The tools operate at different layers of the clinical workflow.

Can UpToDate Expert AI accept patient data?

No. UpToDate Expert AI explicitly does not accept protected health information (PHI). Users are instructed not to enter patient-specific details including age, labs, vitals, medications, or medical history. Expert AI provides general evidence-based guidance only. Glass Health accepts patient-specific context — uploaded records, labs, imaging, specialist notes — and generates personalized clinical reasoning, DDx, and A&P.

How much does UpToDate cost with Expert AI?

Standard UpToDate Pro costs approximately $499–$579/year but does not include Expert AI. Expert AI requires UpToDate Pro Plus (individual, U.S./Canada) or Enterprise Edition (institutional) — neither tier publishes pricing publicly. Association discounts of 15–25% are available through AAFP, ACOFP, and AAPA for standard subscriptions. Glass Health starts with a free Lite tier ($0), with Starter at $20/month, Pro at $90/month, and Max at $200/month including EHR integration.

Does UpToDate integrate with EHR systems?

UpToDate offers embedded search links and context-sensitive HL7 infobutton lookups within Epic, Oracle Cerner, MEDITECH, Allscripts, eClinicalWorks, NextGen, and InterSystems TrakCare — surfacing relevant reference content at the point of care. Glass Health integrates with Epic, eClinicalWorks, and Athena via SMART on FHIR — a bidirectional integration that pulls patient context into the AI workspace and pushes completed documentation back to the chart. The distinction: UpToDate’s integrations surface reference content within the EHR; Glass Health’s integration exchanges patient-specific data with the EHR to power personalized clinical reasoning and documentation.

Which tool is better for reducing physician burnout?

Glass Health directly addresses the primary driver of burnout: documentation burden. Ambient AI scribes reduce after-hours charting and generate complete documentation during encounters. UpToDate supports better clinical decisions through evidence access and CME credits, which contributes to professional satisfaction, but it does not reduce the documentation workload that drives the majority of burnout.

Can I use Glass Health and UpToDate together?

Yes. Glass Health operates at the encounter execution layer (documentation, DDx, A&P, real-time insights), while UpToDate operates at the reference and education layer (deep evidence summaries, drug information, calculators, CME). A practical combined workflow: use Glass Health during patient encounters for ambient documentation and point-of-care reasoning, then use UpToDate Expert AI for deep literature review on complex questions between encounters. However, Glass Health’s built-in clinical Q&A with agentic search of clinical guidelines and medical literature covers many reference needs within the workflow, reducing the frequency of context-switching to a separate tool.

Is UpToDate Expert AI available internationally?

As of early 2026, Expert AI is available in the U.S. and Canada through Pro Plus and Enterprise Edition subscriptions. Wolters Kluwer launched AI-enhanced Enterprise Edition in EMEA (Q3 2025, 40 large health systems in early release) and APAC (200+ hospitals in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong). Broader international Expert AI availability has not been announced.

Bottom Line

Glass Health and UpToDate Expert AI serve different layers of clinical practice. UpToDate is a widely used clinical reference — 30+ years, 13,000+ topics, 7,600+ physician authors, 3+ million users in 190+ countries. Expert AI makes that content more accessible through conversational AI. But Expert AI does not generate documentation, listen to encounters, produce structured differential diagnoses, create assessment and plans, or accept patient-specific data.

If your primary need is deep evidence-based reference content, UpToDate is a clear choice for that purpose. If your primary bottleneck is documentation burden, diagnostic reasoning during encounters, and workflow fragmentation, Glass Health delivers the workflow tools that a reference platform cannot. Try Glass Health free at glass.health/signup.