ZocDoc Launch Wins Accolades from the Press

It's always good to feel appreciated, but the response to our launch and press release has shown us that we are not alone in our belief that finding doctors and dentists is a major pain point for many fellow Americans.

Here is what the press thinks:

	One of my favorites was featured in the "Revenue Models and Analytics" session. ZocDoc ... bills itself as way to make doctor and dentist appointments online. ZocDoc allows you to input your health insurance carrier and a zip code. Many of our readers might now exclaim that this is ... possible through your carrier's web site already. As even more of our readers are aware, insurance company directories of medical professionals are typically not very user-friendly. Beyond that, there's no way to know what other people think of a particular doctor and no way to see availability or make appointments. ZocDoc lets you find the best local dentists and book appointments online... The site features metadata like ratings, reviews, medical degrees, universities, awards won, and, most importantly, open spots on their schedule. The real killer feature is the ability to book a slot on a doctor's schedule without ever having to pick up the phone... Read the full article
	ZocDoc is a Web site to allow you sign up for doctor and dentist appointments. ... You can restrict search by insurance type, location, ratings of doctors and other features. Also works from mobile phones. The site goes live today, starting with dentists in Manhattan. Starts with 2% of Manhattan dentists. Experts time: ... Esther Dyson: Says ... My heart is with ZocDoc; challenge is going to be marketing and visibility; ratings fraud that all review sites deal with; if you can deal with the problems, I think you have a winner; people are fleeing the United Healthcare site and looking for something intelligible. The ZocDoc guy says he has looked at leaders in online feedback space; they are committed to feedback being fair; practitioners get opportunity to respond; if factually incorrect, they will pull it down, on case by case basis. Read the full article and more Barron's coverage here
	A case in point is ZocDoc.com, a New York-based startup that launched on Tuesday as a way to help people to find doctors and dentists online and to screen them to determine what insurance they accept and what kind of reputation they have. Although all major health insurance companies provide their own lists of specialists, those lists are notoriously inaccurate and out of date. ZocDoc founder Cyrus Massoumi, who conceived the business after a a sinus infection led to a ruptured ear drum during a cross-country flight, said the list of doctors his insurance provider offered was hopelessly long and gave no information beyond the doctors' names. "I was praying that the doctor whose name started with an 'A' had finished in the top of his class," he joked. Legendary high-tech investor Esther Dyson said she was excited by the business, which she said "solves a huge problem." Once when she needed immediate care, Dyson admitted, she selected a doctor whose name began with a "B" solely because the name was at the top of the list. "People are fleeing the United Healthcare site," she said. Read the full article
	You can also check out a dentist's online profile, which includes important information like their specialties, education, languages spoken, and affiliations with professional organizations. Each dentist profile page includes a map and a list of user-submitted patient reviews. Think of it being like a background check before your date with the drill. This is a great concept ... Read the full article
	ZocDoc, a good way to get a dentist or doctor recommendation on the fly — This site lets you put in your zip code, and then look for things like an emergency appointment with a dentist, or a consultation about a bad rash with a doctor. ZocDoc returns results of the best rated physicians according to user input. It lets you sort by those who accept your insurance. It also gives you a profile page stating where the doctor or dentist went to school, research papers they’ve written, and other notes by users. Most of us get doctors or dentists from personal recommendations, but sometimes that’s not good enough. That’s when ZocDoc comes in handy. The site just went live, so is relatively spartan. It has about 2 percent of Manhattan’s dentists listed already. Read the full article

Addendum on October 1, 2007:

The new ZocDoc.com lets patients book physician and dentist appointments online, similar to the way OpenTable.com allows diners to make online reservations for restaurants. Read the full article

ZocDoc launches at TechCrunch40

Today at 10:45 am PST our service went live at TechCrunch40, where ZocDoc was selected as one of the 40 hottest startups globally by Michael Arrington and his team. Not a small compliment, considering they have reviewed thousands of companies in the TechCrunch Blog (one of the top 3 tech blogs worldwide). 

With ZocDoc, New Yorkers will now be able to find a dentist online and book an appointment instantly. ZocDoc can filter dentists by insurance & location and makes background information and patient reviews available. You can see Cyrus Massoumi and Oliver Kharraz, MD, our two co-founders, demonstrate the site at TechCrunch below.

We also had great comments from the discussion panel. Guy Kawasaki is probably slow in the adoption curve. He is more likely to ask Jason Calacanis for help than to use ZocDoc himself - but only for particular conditions. Please see his humorous exchange with our co-founder, Cyrus Massoumi:

But Esther Dyson thinks that we "solve a huge problem."  Hear her comments in detail:

Thanks also to the audience for their great response: they gave us the third-highest score in the TechCrunch40.