Oliver Kharraz, Zocdoc CEO

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2:08Hey, earlier this year, Bloomberg reported out on how the pharmaceutical industry is using AI to speed up drug discovery with companies, including Eli Lilly and Sanofi, striking licensing deals with AI companies. And yet, and this was earlier this year, AI has really shown some promise in the early stages of drug development. There is some caution, though, as the FDA has never cleared an AI-designed treatment and some AI-made treatments have failed in clinical trials. So you know what? We're finding our way through this. And that's true when it comes to AI and how healthcare is delivered and how we interact with healthcare professionals.

2:41Yeah, and we have these guardrails set up to prevent bad things from happening and slowly move through them, right? I mean, that's the bureaucracy doing what it's supposed to do. Exactly. The guardrails do matter. Hey, so we're curious what our next guest has to say, because they just last week announced a partnership with the Gemini app to make agentic healthcare appointment bookings a reality. Delighted to have back with us Dr. Oliver, excuse me, Karaz. He is the CEO and co-founder of ZocDoc. It is a platform that connects patients with doctors and also provides telehealth. According to our producer, Anna, it's the only way to find healthcare professionals.

3:17And he joins us in New York City. Dr. Karaz, good to have you here with Joe and myself. AI, tell us how it's impacting your world increasingly, and also how patients communicate and interact with healthcare professionals. Thank you, Carol. Good to be here. So as you pointed out, ZocDoc is known as a destination site that makes it really easy to find and book doctors. And we've built the infrastructure that makes this possible over the last 20 years. What's new now is that we're opening up this infrastructure to third parties so we can power access to care everywhere patients surge. As part of this, we just announced our partnership with Gemini to bring that seamless, agentic appointment booking experience to the Gemini app.

4:06What does that mean? Unpack that. So you're opening it up to third parties. So tell us how that changes the experience if I'm on your app. Yeah. So if you're on our app, as you've always been able to do, you can say, this is the kind of care I need. This is where I am. This is my insurance coverage. and we will immediately show you which doctors are available in your neighborhood that accept your insurance. And we show you the real-time availability that you can then book with just a couple of clicks. So that's been sort of a ZocDoc classic if you want to. But what's true is that not everyone starts their care journey on ZocDoc.

4:47And for us, it's important that whichever front door patients choose, that this door actually opens and we're enabling this for everyone. So to the degree that a patient is using AI, they can tell the AI, use a ZocDoc or just say, here, I want a, for example, a dermatologist near me that accepts my insurance. And then you'll see the options and you can go through an authentic booking experience. I mean, can we go further into this discussion of people using AI for potential medical advice and needs and what ZocDoc is trying to do, right? I mean, in some level, speaking of the guardrails, like it feels like you guys are coming in here and saying that's all great, but you do still need a reliable platform to get you connected with these folks.

5:41Like how are you guys, you know, day by day, this is changing, addressing this for your business model? Yeah, high level. The way that we look at it is that, you know, AI can provide information to patients and a doctor is going to provide the care. And we are the connective tissue between those two things. You know, we don't necessarily provide the AI, but when a patient gets engaged, gets very personalized information, you know, from AI and says, oh, I should take action on this, I should actually receive care, we make it very easy with just a couple of clicks or voice commands to then book an appointment and be seen in a short amount of time.

6:27And to the question, how does this fit in our business model? Well, we are in the business of making these connections, right? We make it really easy for the patient to find care when they need it. And we do that dramatically better than the classic, you know, pick up the phone and dial for doctor's experience, where on average it takes a patient 31 days to be seen. On ZocDoc, the typical appointment happens within 24 to 72 hours. So an order of magnitude faster. And that level of convenience can make a real difference to patients, can keep them out of the emergency room, can get them to better care and can get them to that care sooner before their conditions get worse.

7:08I am curious, though, how you track, because listen, Dr. Google, love you alphabet and Google, use it all the time. But I mean, how much that often freaks somebody out, leads them to going to see a doctor that they don't really need to. and so we've all been there talking to your GP and saying get off of stop searching and just talk to me and listen to me so I am just curious how you track that you know somebody searches on something and says okay I need to go see an ENT professional and then ultimately you guys can track on the platform that that's not what they needed they needed something else so I'm just curious how much of searching on something leads you to somebody that you really a practitioner you don't need to see and and this is why people still say a gatekeeper is really important a gatekeeper who really understands you and your physical and and and well-being history yeah so look i think ai has become a starting point for patients seeking health information but you know before i started zoc talk i i trained as a physician many many years ago and i remember still when people came in with the advice columns that they cut out of magazines and then it was dr Google, then with social media, now it's AI.

8:20And I think the underlying pattern that patients are seeking help, they want to know what's going on, they're trying to get help to interpret the world, that stays the same. I think what we have seen sort of a gradual increase is how specific and tailored that information feels and how engaging it is. And I think we can bemoan that maybe people are engaged on things that they shouldn't be. But in general, when we talk to doctors that are seeing these patients, they like that the patients are more engaged, that they care about their health, because this is the thing, an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.

9:04And this gets patients to engage with their health because the threshold and the complexity of the information gets reduced. So we think this can very well function as a net benefit, as long as it's clear that the AI sort of stays in its lane and provides information and the care is delivered by a doctor who then actually has the judgment as to what the right course of treatment will be. A more informed patient is better for a doctor, but at what point do they become like too informed by the AI and it becomes problematic. Well, see, I think this is interesting because when we talk to patients, they said, well, I do use AI and I keep it secret from my doctor.

9:53And then when you ask the doctors, they say, A, I can tell. I know when someone, you know, search this up and B, I welcome it. So my stipulation would be just a lot more open with it. There is really not such a thing as having too much information. Now, not all the information might apply to you, and this is where a conversation with the provider can really help out. But I would say that an informed patient is generally a better patient. Tell us in general about the platform, the growth, the users, the amount of activity you guys are seeing. Just curious. You guys have been around for a while, talking in the newsroom.

10:32I think you guys started it, gosh, how many years ago is it now? Yeah, nearly 20 years ago at this point. It is 20 years. That's what I thought. 2007, right? 2007. Yeah, you're right. You're right. So tell us. Yeah. Go ahead. No, I'm curious about the growth that you're seeing and the monetization that you continue to see. Give us an idea. We're Bloomberg. We like financials and growth in numbers. We, at this point, have more than 200 ,000 providers on the platform. And that number has compounded with roughly 50 % over the last few years. So we see rapid network growth. And because of that scale, we're now in a position where we can partner with lots of third parties that need that scale to function.

11:20Obviously, Google Gemini is something that we announced last week. But before that, we announced Blue Shield of California, the Department of Veteran Affairs, through WellHive, Yelp, HealthGrade. So we are working as this connective tissue and really the health access infrastructure for the country. We make sure that every single front door to care opens, even though not every single search needs to start on ZocDoc. I mean, it's amazing how far we've come. Do you use it? Yes, I have used ZocDoc. ZocDoc. And it just, it used to be to find a new doctor, like you just had to ask a friend or a coworker.

12:01And now not only can you get a recommendation, but it can be located within your small neighborhood. Which is super helpful and useful. How do you rate doctors? And like, how do you, you know, what's the transparency in terms of who can be on the platform or how do you pick and choose? Yeah. So we actually interestingly have the only closed loop review system that I know of in healthcare, where the only way that you can leave a review on a doctor on ZocDoc is by having booked and seen that doctor through ZocDoc as well. So there's, you know, none of that leaving reviews on yourself or on your competitor, which is something that patients really rely on.

12:43And we have patients ranking doctors on a number of factors that are important to them. And we also have internal rankings on doctors that we can match to the patient and the specific criteria that they have mentioned looking for. So it's really something that goes way beyond just asking a coworker. I'll also point out that frequently availability is one of the things that is critical. And I'll just give you sort of a taste for how different that is. The average time to get and see a doctor, if you pick up the phone and dial for doctors, is 31 days. That's a month. On ZocDoc, you can see a doctor within 24 to 72 hours.

13:34And why is that possible? Because doctors have last-minute cancellations. They have no-tos. They have risked. They have the odd, you know, available appointment, which you could never find if you had to call around. But on ZocDoc, they're all right there for you to pick. That makes it, yeah, that's that. I understand the efficiency in that. That makes sense to me. Oliver, we have to run. Thank you so much. Good to check in with you. Oliver Karaz, he is the CEO and co-founder of ZocDoc. Joining us. Before you sign off, you tuned in for ways to help teams move faster, make sharper decisions, and turn scattered contexts into work they can use.

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