ClinicalKey AI vs DynaMed (2026)
Two publishers' reference products with generative layers, competing for the same institutional subscription. ClinicalKey AI answers from Elsevier's licensed library, refreshed daily: reference texts, society guidelines and full text journals including The Lancet, the New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA. It names OpenAI and Anthropic as its model providers and checks each assertion against its cited source in real time. DynaMed is EBSCO's disease reference, built under a stated seven step evidence method. Its Dyna AI answers only from DynaMed's own content and labels what it generates. Since December 2025 it also draws on Micromedex drug content for dosing summaries. The difference is what each has shown. Elsevier published its own evaluation of ClinicalKey AI's answers. DynaMed publishes a downloadable security certificate and no evaluation of Dyna AI.
- A published evaluation of 426 answers, run by Elsevier: 95.5 percent rated correct, and 2 rated as potential harm.
- Named model providers, OpenAI and Anthropic, under zero retention contracts.
- A real time step that checks each assertion against the source it cites.
- An ISO 27001 certificate covering DynaMed by name, downloadable from EBSCO's trust page.
- No advertising and no data selling, stated on the Dyna AI page.
- Individual and trainee subscriptions sold on its own site, with a free trial.
This comparison is published by AI Health Index, an independent research platform that compares healthcare AI vendors objectively. ClinicalKey AI and DynaMed are each graded against the same capability taxonomy, from each vendor's own public materials and the regulatory record, under the AI Health Index verification standard. No vendor pays for placement, and no vendor has reviewed this page. How this evidence is graded
Plain facts
| Fact | ClinicalKey AI | DynaMed |
|---|---|---|
| Primary category | Clinical Reference & Evidence | Clinical Reference & Evidence |
| Headquarters | New York, New York | Ipswich, Massachusetts |
| Website | elsevier.com | dynamed.com |
Side by Side
Select any grade to read the note behind it.
Product updates
The latest logged changes from each vendor, newest first, each linked to its source.
ClinicalKey AI
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Product / capability
Elsevier launched ClinicalKey Nursing AI, a conversational clinical decision support tool built specifically for nurses.
Source
DynaMed
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Product / capability
DynaMed's iOS app version 6.2 adds videos throughout the app, opened directly inside topics, search results and Dyna AI answers, with swiping between related images and videos.
Source
Each vendor in one paragraph
Written to be quoted whole. Each paragraph opens the AI Health Index profile of the vendor: what the product is, who buys it and what it does.
ClinicalKey AI is a generative clinical decision support layer built on ClinicalKey, Elsevier Health's point of care content platform. It launched in February 2024 and was expanded in February 2026 with full text journal content and new features. Elsevier's wider portfolio spans scientific publishing and research analytics.
Source: AI Health Index, September 2026
Point of care disease reference from EBSCO Clinical Decisions, part of EBSCO Information Services. Content rests on a stated seven step evidence based methodology with daily systematic literature surveillance, edited by a named clinical team.
Source: AI Health Index, September 2026
Questions buyers ask
How do ClinicalKey AI and DynaMed work with the EHR?
For ClinicalKey AI, the product page states SMART on FHIR single sign on for access inside the EHR, an API so the product can be integrated into tools beyond the EHR, and link resolver support connecting to an institution's own full text holdings.
The practicing clinicians page describes DynaMed Decisions tools that surface guideline recommendations based on each patient's data. Across the product line the named methods include embedded links, search box widgets, the HL7 Infobutton context retrieval API, a web services API, single sign on and a mobile app; Infobutton is the standard built for surfacing reference content in context from inside the record. From the AI Health Index, drawn from each vendor's own published materials and the regulatory record, verified September 29, 2026. No vendor pays for placement.
How are ClinicalKey AI and DynaMed priced and sold?
In ClinicalKey AI's case, clinicians and residents can try the product free for 90 days, medical students in the United States and Canada get one year of full access free, and institutions are directed to request institutional access or speak with an Elsevier sales representative.
EBSCO's DynaMed pages offer a free trial and a newsletter sign up, individual subscriptions are sold through the DynaMed site, and EBSCO has announced Dyna AI for DynaMedex individual subscribers. From the AI Health Index, drawn from each vendor's own published materials and the regulatory record, verified September 29, 2026. No vendor pays for placement.
How do ClinicalKey AI and DynaMed handle patient data?
The ClinicalKey AI FAQ adds that all user data is encrypted in transit and at rest, that access is limited to authorized personnel under pseudonymization for product support only, and that no access is granted to cloud providers or third party AI partners for training. Users can save, search, share or remove past queries in a privacy panel.
DynaMed Decisions takes patient data through a SMART on FHIR integration to pre populate decision aids and calculators, and that module is where retention and use questions land. Nothing published says how long queries and captured Dyna AI conversations are kept, whether they are used to train or tune any model, or what deidentification applies. From the AI Health Index, drawn from each vendor's own published materials and the regulatory record, verified September 29, 2026. No vendor pays for placement.
Which settings and specialties do ClinicalKey AI and DynaMed cover?
For ClinicalKey AI, the corpus spans cardiology, internal medicine and pediatrics reference texts, society guidelines covering cardiology, endocrinology, emergency medicine, chest medicine and oncology, drug information, and full text journals, and responses can take a patient's age, comorbidities and medications into account when the clinician supplies them.
The family covers distinct segments: DynaMed for disease and condition reference, Dynamic Health for nursing and allied health, and DynaMedex adding Micromedex drug content for care teams and pharmacy, with DynaMed Decisions for patient specific risk tools and shared decision making. Continuing education and maintenance of certification credit accrue from use, and a clinician can affiliate with several organizations. From the AI Health Index, drawn from each vendor's own published materials and the regulatory record, verified September 29, 2026. No vendor pays for placement.
Related comparisons
Other published head to head assessments involving these vendors or their closest peers. The full set for this category is on the Clinical Decision Support page.
Both records were reviewed on this site in September 2026. Neither publishes an institutional price. ClinicalKey AI's evaluation was written by current and former Elsevier employees and has not been repeated by anyone else. DynaMed's published study tested its search and an earlier assistant, not Dyna AI.
Ask DynaMed for any measurement of Dyna AI's answers, and ask Elsevier whether anyone outside the company has repeated its evaluation.