Zocdoc CEO Oliver Kharraz discusses latest patient trends

More patients are seeking medications to battle obesity, a trend that’s being reflected in those looking for providers on Zocdoc.

Oliver Kharraz, MD, the founder and CEO of Zocdoc, says more patients are using the booking platform to find doctors to talk about weight loss drugs.

Oliver Kharraz, MD, the founder and CEO of Zocdoc, says more and more patients are seeking popular weight loss medications, or GLP-1 drugs. Zocdoc has seen a big uptick in patients booking appointments on Zocdoc to get prescriptions for those drugs, which work like the glucagon-like peptide 1 hormone and help suppress appetite.

“We saw a massive increase in the GLP-1 bookings that happened and I think this is a result of it being more available,” Kharraz says.

Kharraz talked with Chief Healthcare Executive® as the company released a report this morning outlining trends among Zocdoc customers in the past year. Some customer interest may have spiked a bit after Oprah Winfrey acknowledged her use of weight loss medication, he says.

Zocdoc saw a 50% increase in women booking appointments to talk about GLP-1 drugs, and a 71% increase in men seeking consultations with doctors about the weight loss medications.

More patients are asking primary care doctors about getting the drugs, Kharraz says.

“Patients feel comfortable doing that with their primary care physician,” he says. “That's actually the specialty most frequently selected for these bookings, so that's something that's new.”

Looking ahead to 2025, Kharraz says that he expects the high demand for those medications to continue, particularly if availability of those drugs improves.

“The story of the GLP-1’s is not over yet,” he says, adding, “We've seen increasing adoption by consumers and I expect this to go on.”

The top growing specialty appointments on Zocdoc in 2024 were urgent care, dermatology, psychiatry, allergy and psychology.

With women patients, the biggest increase in appointments came in those seeking anti-aging treatments, followed by those with colds. Among male patients, the biggest increases in patient appointments involved those seeking treatments for colds and therapy.

Fewer virtual bookings

More patients on Zocdoc are opting to see doctors in person, as Zocdoc is seeing fewer patients opt for telehealth appointments. In 2024, only 12% of all Zocdoc appointments involved virtual care, down from 18% in 2023.

“It's a continuation of the trend we saw last year,” Kharraz says.

“We all have physical bodies and so you want to be seen by someone who can examine your body,” he says.

When it comes to mental health, patients are more likely to book appointments to see providers via telehealth.

Nearly four in five (79%) of Zocdoc appointments booked with psychiatrists were done virtually, while 74% of patients saw psychologists remotely.

Some of that reflects the shortage of mental health clinicians, which is driving more patients to seek appointments virtually. “The supply is sort of driving these behaviors,” he says.

But when it comes to seeing a clinician for mental health needs, some patients prefer talking to providers from their own home, he says.

“You can see the environment and what the living situation of the patient overall is, which obviously is important information for the mental health practitioner,” Kharraz says.

If mental health appointments are excluded, only 5% of Zocdoc’s appointments in 2024 were virtual, down from 8% in 2023.

Patient profiles

Women continue to make up the bulk of Zocdoc’s customers, as female patients booked two-thirds (66%) of appointments in 2024.

Kharraz says the high usage of Zocdoc among women tends to reflect the healthcare industry more broadly.“Women as a group tend to take better care of themselves,” he says. “They are the CEO's of the family when it comes to healthcare.”

Zocdoc’s high percentage of female patients may also reflect the providers on the platform, since nearly two-thirds (64%) of all physicians on Zocdoc are women. He says that could reflect women physicians talking to other female doctors about being on the platform, as most physicians who join Zocdoc come by word-of-mouth, Kharraz says.

“We're happy for any provider to join us,” he says. “And male providers can be tremendously successful on the platform as well.”

Shopping around

Patients who come to Zocdoc aren’t necessarily going for the first provider available. Many are shopping around to find the right physician.

The average patient looks at 26 physicians before booking an appointment, the company says.

Some patients look at everything from the doctor’s reviews to where they trained. Kharraz says some patients “really review the doctors in detail and ultimately make a very well considered decision based on a lot of factors.”

However, some patients need to see a doctor urgently and are aiming to find someone who can see them quickly. Zocdoc says the majority of appointments are booked within four days.

Most of the patients that see Zocdoc are younger adults, with nearly half (47%) of all patients booking appointments in the Millennials group (between the ages of 27 and 42). Another 22% of Zocdoc’s patients are between the ages of 18 and 26. Only 10% of the patients booking appointments are 59 and older.

More than two-thirds of Zocdoc’s customers booked appointments through mobile devices in 2024.

Healthcare leaders need to be increasingly mindful of how they can make it easier for patients to access their services, Kharraz suggests.

“​​I think obviously everyone realizes that the patient is now the consumer, and that you need to meet them where they are,” he says.