Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and
Speaker 2: Tim Stenebeck on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: Hey. Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported out on how the
Speaker 1: pharmaceutical industry is using AI to speed up drug discovery,
Speaker 1: with companies including Eli, Lilly and Santa Fe striking licensing
Speaker 1: deals with AI companies. And yet, and this was earlier
Speaker 1: this year, AI has really shown some promise in the
Speaker 1: early stages of drug development. There is some caution though,
Speaker 1: as the FDA has never cleared an AI designed treatment,
Speaker 1: and some AI made treatments have failed in clinical trials. So,
Speaker 1: you know what, we're finding our way through this, And
Speaker 1: that's true when it comes to AI and how healthcare
Speaker 1: is delivered and how we interact with healthcare professionals.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we have these guardrails set up to prevent bad
Speaker 2: things from happening and slowly move through them.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the bureaucracy doing what it's supposed to do.
Speaker 3: Exactly.
Speaker 1: The guardrails do matter. Hey, We're curious what our next
Speaker 1: guest has to say, because they just last week and
Speaker 1: as a partnership with the Gemini app to make a
Speaker 1: gentic healthcare appointment bookings a reality. Delighted to have back
Speaker 1: with us, doctor Oliver. Oliver, excuse me, Kiraz. He is
Speaker 1: the CEO and co founder of ZocDoc. It is a
Speaker 1: platform that connects patients with doctors and also provides telehealth.
Speaker 1: According to our producer Anna, it's the only way to
Speaker 1: find healthcare professionals, and he joins us in New York City,
Speaker 1: Doctor carraz good to have you here with Joe and myself.
Speaker 1: Ai tell us how it's impacting your world increasingly and
Speaker 1: also how patients communicate and interact with healthcare professionals.
Speaker 3: Thank you, caroleen good to be here. So, as you
Speaker 3: pointed out, ZocDoc is known as a destination side that
Speaker 3: makes it really easy to find in book doctors, and
Speaker 3: we've built the infrastructure that makes us possible over the
Speaker 3: last twenty years. What's new now is that we're opening
Speaker 3: up this infrastructure to third parties so we can power
Speaker 3: access to care everywhere patient search. As part of this,
Speaker 3: we just announced our partnership with Gemini to bring that
Speaker 3: seamless agentic appointment booking experience to the Gemini app. What
Speaker 3: does that mean?
Speaker 1: Unpack that? So you're opening it up to third parties,
Speaker 1: so tell us how that changes the experience if I'm
Speaker 1: on your app.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So if you're in our app, as you've always
Speaker 3: been able to do, you can say this is the
Speaker 3: kind of care I need, this is where I am,
Speaker 3: this is my insurance coverage, and we will immediately show
Speaker 3: you which doctors are available in your neighborhood that accept
Speaker 3: your insurance, and we show you the real time availability
Speaker 3: that you can then book with just a couple of clicks.
Speaker 3: So that's been sort of sect a classic if you
Speaker 3: want to. But what's true is that not everyone starts
Speaker 3: their care journey on zoctoc And for us, it's important
Speaker 3: that whichever front door patients choose, uh, they that this
Speaker 3: store actually opens and we're enabling this, you know, for everyone.
Speaker 3: So to the degree that a patient is using AI,
Speaker 3: they can tell the I use a ZocDoc or or
Speaker 3: just say here, I want a for example, gematologist near
Speaker 3: me that accepts my insurance, and then you'll see the
Speaker 3: options and you can go through an a genetic booking experience.
Speaker 2: I mean, can we can we go further into this
Speaker 2: discussion of people using AI for potential medical advice and
Speaker 2: needs and what ZocDoc is trying to do right, I mean,
Speaker 2: in some level speaking of the guardrails, like it feels
Speaker 2: like you guys are coming in here and saying that's
Speaker 2: all great, but you do still need a reliable platform
Speaker 2: to get you connected with these folks, like how are
Speaker 2: you guys? You know, day by day this is changing
Speaker 2: addressing this for your business.
Speaker 3: Model, Yeah, high level. The way that we look at
Speaker 3: it is that you know, AI can provide information to
Speaker 3: patients and a doctor is going to provide the care,
Speaker 3: and we are the connective tissue between those two things.
Speaker 3: We don't necessarily provide the AI, but when a patient
Speaker 3: gets engaged, gets very personalized information you know, from AI,
Speaker 3: and says, oh, I should take action on this, I
Speaker 3: should actually receive care. We make it very easy with
Speaker 3: just a couple of clicks or voice commands to then
Speaker 3: book an appointment and be seen in a short amount
Speaker 3: of time. And to the question, how does this fit
Speaker 3: in our business model? While we are in the business
Speaker 3: of making these connections, right, we make it really easy
Speaker 3: for the patient to find care when they need it,
Speaker 3: and we do that dramatically better than the classic you know,
Speaker 3: pick up the phone and down for doctor's experience. We're
Speaker 3: on average it takes a patient thirty one days to
Speaker 3: be seen on ZocDoc. The typical point happens within twenty
Speaker 3: four to seventy two hours, So an order of magnitude
Speaker 3: faster and that level of convenience can make a real
Speaker 3: difference to patients. You can keep them out of the
Speaker 3: emergency room, can get them to better care, and can
Speaker 3: get them to that care sooner before their conditions get worse.
Speaker 1: I am curious, though, how you track Chris listen doctor.
Speaker 1: Google love you alphabet and Google use it all the time,
Speaker 1: but I mean how much that often freaks somebody out,
Speaker 1: leads them to going to see a doctor that they
Speaker 1: don't really need to. And so we've all been there
Speaker 1: talking to your GGP and they're saying, get off of
Speaker 1: stop searching and just talk to me and listen to me.
Speaker 1: So I am just curious how you track that. You know,
Speaker 1: somebody searches on something and says, okay, I need to
Speaker 1: go see an E and T professional and then ultimately
Speaker 1: you guys can track on the platform that that's not
Speaker 1: what they needed. They needed something else. So I'm just
Speaker 1: curious how much of searching on something leads you to
Speaker 1: somebody that you're really a practitioner you don't need to see.
Speaker 1: And this is why people still say a gatekeeper is
Speaker 1: really important, a gatekeeper who really understand you and your
Speaker 1: physical and well being history.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So look, I think AI has become a starting
Speaker 3: point for patients seeking health information. But before I started Zoctoc,
Speaker 3: I trained as a physician many many years ago, and
Speaker 3: I remember still when people came in with the advice
Speaker 3: columns that they cut out of magazines, and then it
Speaker 3: was doctor Google, then was social media, NOWADAYI and I
Speaker 3: think the underlying pattern that patients are seeking help, they
Speaker 3: want to know what's going on that trying to get
Speaker 3: help to interpret the world, that stays the same. I
Speaker 3: think what we have seen sort of a gradual increase,
Speaker 3: is how specific and tailored that information feels and how
Speaker 3: engaging it is. And I think we can bemoan that
Speaker 3: maybe people are engaged in things that they shouldn't be.
Speaker 3: But you know, in general, when we talk to doctors
Speaker 3: that are seeing these pa they like that the patients
Speaker 3: are more engaged, you know that they care about their
Speaker 3: health because this is the thing they're like an ounce
Speaker 3: of prevention is better than a pound of cure, and
Speaker 3: this gets patients, you know, to engage with the health
Speaker 3: because the threshold and the complexity of the information gets reduced.
Speaker 3: So we think this can very well function as a
Speaker 3: net benefit as long as it's clear that THEI sort
Speaker 3: of stays in its lane and provides information and the
Speaker 3: care is delivered by a doctor who then actually has
Speaker 3: the judgment as to what the right course of treatment
Speaker 3: will be.
Speaker 2: A more informed patient is better for a doctor. But
Speaker 2: at what point do they become too informed by the
Speaker 2: AI and it becomes problematic.
Speaker 3: Well see, I think this is interesting because when we
Speaker 3: talk to patients, they said, well, I do use AI,
Speaker 3: and I keep it secret from my doctor. And then
Speaker 3: when you ask the doctors to say, hey, I can
Speaker 3: tell I know when someone you know searts this up
Speaker 3: and be I welcome it. So my stipulation would be
Speaker 3: be just a lot more open with it. There is
Speaker 3: really not such a thing as having too much information. Now,
Speaker 3: not all the information might apply to you, and this
Speaker 3: is where a conversation with the provider can really help out.
Speaker 3: But you know, I would I would say that an
Speaker 3: informed patient is generally a better patient.
Speaker 1: Tell us in general about the platform, the growth, the users,
Speaker 1: the amount of activity you guys are seeing. Just curious.
Speaker 1: You guys have been around for a while, you know,
Speaker 1: talking in the newsroom, I think you guys started it. Gosh,
Speaker 1: how many years ago is it now?
Speaker 3: Yeah, nearly twenty years ago at this point. So that's
Speaker 3: what I thought.
Speaker 1: Two thousand and seven, right, two.
Speaker 3: Thousand and seven. Yeah, you're right, you're right.
Speaker 1: So tell yeah, No, I'm curious about the growth that
Speaker 1: you're seeing and the monetization that you continue to see.
Speaker 1: Give us an idea.
Speaker 3: We're Bloomberg.
Speaker 1: We like financials and growth and numbers.
Speaker 3: We at this point have more than two hundred thousand
Speaker 3: providers on the platform and that number has compounded with
Speaker 3: roughly fifty percent over the last few years. So we
Speaker 3: see rapid network growth, and you know, because of that scale,
Speaker 3: we're now in a position where we can partner with
Speaker 3: lots of you know, third parties that need that scale
Speaker 3: to function. Obviously, Google Gemini is something that announced last week,
Speaker 3: but before that, we announced the Blue Shield of California,
Speaker 3: the Department of Veteran Affairs through well Hive YELP Health Grade.
Speaker 3: So we are you know, working as this connective tissue
Speaker 3: and really the health access infrastructure you know, for the country.
Speaker 3: We make sure that every single front door took care opens,
Speaker 3: even though not every single search needs to start on zoctoc.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's amazing how far we I have, Yes,
Speaker 2: I have zuctoc and it just it used to be
Speaker 2: to find a new doctor, like you just had to
Speaker 2: ask a friend or co worker, I know, And now
Speaker 2: not only can you get a recommendation, but that can
Speaker 2: be located within your small neighborhood.
Speaker 1: Which is super helpful and useful. How do you rate
Speaker 1: doctors and like, how do you know, what's the transparency
Speaker 1: in terms of who can be on the platform or
Speaker 1: how do you pick and choose?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we actually, interestingly have the only closed loop
Speaker 3: review system that I know of in healthcare, where the
Speaker 3: only way that you can leave a review on a
Speaker 3: doctor on zoctoc is by having booked and seen that
Speaker 3: doctor through doctors falls. There's none of that leaving reviews
Speaker 3: on yourself or on your competitor, which is something that
Speaker 3: patients really rely on. And we have patients ranking doctors
Speaker 3: on a number of factors that are important to them,
Speaker 3: and we also have internal rights on you know doctors
Speaker 3: that that we can match to the patient you know,
Speaker 3: and and the specific criteria that they have mentioned looking for.
Speaker 3: So it's really something that goes way beyond just asking
Speaker 3: a co worker. I'll also point out that you know
Speaker 3: frequently you know, availability is one of the things that
Speaker 3: is critical, and I'll just give you sort of a
Speaker 3: taste for how different that is. The average time you
Speaker 3: know to get and see a doctor if you pick
Speaker 3: up the phone and dial for doctors is thirty one days.
Speaker 3: That's a month. On ZocDoc, you can see a doctor
Speaker 3: within twenty four to seventy two hours. And why is
Speaker 3: that possible? Because doctors have last minute cancelations, they have
Speaker 3: no every skal, they have the odd available appointment which
Speaker 3: you could never find if you had to call around.
Speaker 3: But on doctor, if they are all right there for you.
Speaker 1: For me to pick, that makes it. Yeah, that's that
Speaker 1: I understand efficiency and that that makes sense to me. Oliver,
Speaker 1: we have to run. Thank you so much. Good to
Speaker 1: check in with you. Oliver Kralz He is the CEO
Speaker 1: and co founder of Zachdac, joining us
Speaker 3: M