Senators Tom Daschle and Doctor Bill Frist Join ZocDoc Advisory Board

NEW YORK, Jan. 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- ZocDoc, a company dedicated to improving access to healthcare, today announces that former Senate Majority Leaders Tom Daschle and Dr. Bill Frist have joined its advisory board. The board provides perspective and counsel to the executive team at ZocDoc as the company continues its rapid growth and expansion.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20111128/NY11439LOGO)

"Senators Daschle and Frist are among the most influential leaders in healthcare and government, and they each have a long history of building consensus from both parties to affect change," said Cyrus Massoumi, co-founder and CEO of ZocDoc. "We are honored to work with them to develop the high-level partnerships we need to bring better access to medical care to patients everywhere." 

"I've dedicated my life to affecting change in healthcare as a practicing surgeon and professor, a senator and policy maker, and through medical mission work here at home and globally," Doctor and Senator Bill Frist said. "The same technologies that have fundamentally transformed other industries need to be applied in healthcare, where they will both dramatically enhance patient convenience and markedly improve patients' overall health." 

"In order to see real change in our healthcare system, we all need to work together to help control skyrocketing costs and provide the access to care patients not only need, but deserve," said Senator Daschle. "I firmly believe in the power of the private sector - and specifically ZocDoc - to work in tandem with policy makers and the medical community to change healthcare for the better by scaling our system for the future and empowering patients."

ZocDoc's service is now available in 13 metropolitan areas, offering more than 5.5 million available appointments with doctors and medical providers at any given time. ZocDoc is used by more than 800,000 patients each month.

About ZocDoc

ZocDoc, founded in 2007, is improving access to healthcare by enabling patients to search for doctors, sort by location and insurance accepted, read verified patient reviews, and instantly book an appointment online. There are over 5.5 million medical appointments available on ZocDoc. Approximately 800,000 people use ZocDoc to find a doctor or dentist each month. ZocDoc mobile applications for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry allow patients to find doctors and book appointments on the go. To learn more about ZocDoc, please visit the ZocDoc blog, press room, Twitter, or Facebook.

About Senator Tom Daschle

Tom Daschle was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1978 where he served for eight years before he was elected to the U.S. Senate and later became its Democratic Leader. He is one of the longest serving Senate Democratic Leaders in history and the only one to serve twice as both Majority and Minority Leader. During his tenure, Senator Daschle navigated the Senate through some of its most historic economic and national security challenges and he chronicled some of these experiences in his book, Like No Other Time: The 107th Congress and the Two Years That Changed America Forever.

Today, Senator Daschle is a Senior Policy Advisor to the law firm of DLA Piper where he provides clients with strategic advice on public policy issues such as climate change and health care. Since leaving the Senate, he has distinguished his expertise in health care through the publication of Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis and GETTING IT DONE: How Obama and Congress Finally Broke the Stalemate to Make Way for Health Care Reform. 

Senator Daschle is a co-founder of the Bipartisan Policy Center, serves on the board of the Center for American Progress, acts as the Vice Chair of the National Democratic Institute, and is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations. He is also a member of the Health Policy and Management Executive Council at the Harvard School of Public Health; the Global Policy Advisory Council for the Health Worker Migration; the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation Board of Trustees; and the GE Healthymagination Advisory Board.

About Doctor and Senator Bill Frist

A nationally recognized heart and lung transplant surgeon and former U.S. Senate Majority Leader, Doctor and Senator Bill Frist is recognized as one of the most influential leaders in American healthcare.

Dr. Frist graduated from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and Harvard Medical School.  He completed his surgical training and chief residency in heart surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital and transplant fellowship at Stanford University Medical Center. As the founder and Director of the Vanderbilt Multi-Organ Transplant Center, he performed over 150 heart and lung transplants and authored over 100 peer-reviewed medical articles and chapters, over 400 newspaper articles, and seven books on topics such as bioterrorism, transplantation, and leadership.  He is board certified in both general and heart surgery.

Dr. Frist represented Tennessee in the U.S. Senate for 12 years where he served on both Health and Finance committees. He was elected Majority Leader of the Senate having served fewer years in Congress than any previous leader in history. He was instrumental in the passage of Medicare prescription drug legislation and funding to fight global HIV/AIDS.  

He currently serves as chairman of the Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows, Adjunct Professor of cardiac surgery at Vanderbilt, clinical professor of surgery at Meharry Medical School, and on the boards of numerous private and public healthcare companies as well as the Kaiser Family Foundation. He is a partner in the private investment firm of Cressey and Company.

Press contact:

Allison Braley for ZocDoc
(212) 933-9907
[email protected]

SOURCE ZocDoc