AskTrip has just reached a remarkable milestone – 5,000 clinical questions answered in under 20 weeks. On its own, that’s an impressive figure. But the real story lies in the contrast with our early work and what this achievement represents for evidence-based healthcare.

From Manual Q&A to the Digital Frontier

Back in 1997, we launched ATTRACT, one of the world’s first evidence-based Q&A services for clinicians. It was followed by the National Library for Health Q&A service – both pioneering efforts, the latter ran until around 2012.

Across those 15 years, our teams of information specialists and clinicians answered around 10,000 clinical questions. Each one required 4–6 hours of careful searching, appraisal, and synthesis – a manual, time-intensive process, but one that had a huge impact on clinical decision-making.

Those services were driven by a simple belief: that busy clinicians should have quick, trusted access to the best available evidence to inform patient care. That belief remains unchanged today.

Trip’s Core Mission: Connecting Clinicians with Evidence

The Trip Database was originally created to support the work of ATTRACT, providing rapid access to high-quality evidence for the team answering clinical questions. Over time, it became clear that Trip could serve a much wider audience – helping clinicians everywhere find reliable evidence efficiently.

From those early days, Trip has always been about one thing: connecting clinical decision-makers with the best available evidence.

Over the years, it has evolved from a focused evidence search tool into a comprehensive evidence ecosystem, helping millions of users around the world find trustworthy answers faster. AskTrip is the latest, and perhaps most exciting, chapter in that ongoing story.

AskTrip: A Natural Extension of Trip’s Mission

AskTrip builds directly on Trip’s foundations but uses a radically different interface – natural language. Clinicians can now simply type a question such as “What’s the best treatment for resistant hypertension in pregnancy?” and receive a clear, concise, evidence-based summary in seconds.

What previously took hours or days of searching can now be achieved almost instantly. Yet the principles that underpin AskTrip are the same as ever: reliability, transparency, and a commitment to evidence, not opinion.

AskTrip doesn’t replace human judgment or the careful reading of full studies – it amplifies access to trusted information when it’s needed most.

A Shift in Scale

The numbers tell the story:

  • 10,000 Q&As in 15 years through manual services like ATTRACT and the NLH Q&A service.
  • 5,000 Q&As in less than 20 weeks through AskTrip.

That’s not just efficiency – it’s accessibility at scale. Thousands of clinicians have been able to get quick, high-quality answers to their clinical questions, helping improve decision-making in real-world settings.

Looking Ahead

This milestone is more than a statistic; it’s a reflection of how far evidence-based medicine has come – and how technology can help accelerate it without compromising quality.

AskTrip represents the next step in a journey that began nearly three decades ago. The tools may have changed, but the mission remains constant: to connect clinical decision-makers with the best available evidence, as quickly and clearly as possible.

We’re incredibly proud of how far we’ve come – and even more excited about what lies ahead.