Cyrus Massoumi, co-founder of ZocDoc
Why can’t scheduling a doctor’s appointment be as easy as booking a flight or making a dinner reservation? That’s the question Cyrus Massoumi asked five years ago after he ruptured an eardrum and spent four days searching for a specialist. Nine months later, Massoumi, 36, quit his consulting gig at McKinsey to co-found ZocDoc, a free Web service that helps people book medical appointments online. For patients, the site offers convenience. Searches can target doctors on the basis of specialty, insurance accepted and even available time slots (one reason most ZocDoc appointments are made a day or two in advance, as opposed to the national average of 20 days). For doctors, joining the site — for a monthly fee of $300 — is a relatively low-cost way to bring in new business and fill last-minute vacancies. It’s not necessarily good for customer loyalty: participating doctors agree to let patients rate them on the site, an approach many non-ZocDoc physicians have resisted. Still, the site’s user base is growing rapidly. To maintain momentum, Massoumi plans to introduce new tools, like a check-in feature that stores patients’ routine health data. If that takes off, he says, just “think what it could do if applied to all medical records.”