Over the last two decades, the global healthcare sector, has experienced significant advancements, primarily at the care delivery level through the deployment of new drugs, devices and treatments. And yet, despite the industry’s willingness to advance in these dimensions, the industry has remained remarkably unwilling to adopt advances in information technology and the corresponding patient empowerment these technologies promise to deliver. As patients begin to take charge of their healthcare decisions and more specifically seek relevant data to choose the most suitable healthcare professionals, creating a patient-centric healthcare ecosystem becomes increasingly important.
Cole Sirucek is the Co-founder and CEO of DocDoc, Asia’s leading patient empowerment company. DocDoc is transforming healthcare by providing patients with the relevant information needed to ensure they find the highest quality care for their unique medical needs. Having gone through his own personal journey to search for the right doctors to operate on his daughter, Cole wanted to make a difference in other people’s lives by dedicating his career to build a patient friendly, top notch healthcare ecosystem. Operating in 8 countries with a virtual network of more than 23,000 doctors, DocDoc enables patients to find the right care at the right time. The company combines deep expertise in clinical informatics, artificial intelligence, and healthcare quality assessment to deliver simple yet powerful patient-to-doctor matching solutions. DocDoc has partnered with Asia’s leading insurance providers and employers to provide quality doctor discovery services to their policyholders and employees.
By way of background, Cole is seasoned entrepreneur and investor, with a Masters in Business Administration from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management and a Masters of Public Administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Previously, he was an Independent Member of the Board of Directors for Global Eagle Acquisition Corp, a US$190M, NASDAQ listed special purpose acquisition corporation focused on the media and entertainment industry. Cole has also spent seven years as an investor with Temasek Holdings. In this capacity, he sourced, executed and monitored investments on a global basis in the firm’s telecommunications, media and technology group. Cole is a serial entrepreneur who has founded successful businesses in the consumer and telecommunication industries in addition to DocDoc.
Under Cole’s leadership, DocDoc has become a category leader in Asia’s healthcare industry. According to Cole, a large part of the firm’s success resides in the balanced nature of their business model. “At DocDoc, we work really hard to make sure everyone wins. At DocDoc, the patient finds a highly qualified doctor to treat their condition. The physician, who excels in specific treatments and procedures, has a company validate their expertise and send select patients to them so they can focus on clinical care. The insurance firms, knowing that happy policyholders maintain memberships, partner with DocDoc to assure their members make informed medical decisions. The service is free of charge to providers to ensure transparency and avoid conflict of interest.”
A Team That Works Together, Wins Together
Cole dedicates the success of DocDoc to his incredibly talented and dedicated team who has constantly supported the venture at every step of the way.
Grace Park is the Co-Founder and President of DocDoc. She brings with her more than 18 years of leadership experience, nearly 15 of which were spent in international healthcare when she led large-scale teams of distributors and a direct-to-doctor, pan-Asian salesforce for Fortune 500 companies.
Dan Riskin is the Executive Chairman of DocDoc and previously held positions as Founder and CEO of Health Fidelity and Entrepreneur in Residence at Mohr Davidow Ventures. He has been instrumental in developing and commercializing products in clinical analytics, healthcare services, and medical devices.
Strategies for the upcoming years
Cole and his team wish to create a mindset where patient empowerment through data is a norm rather than an option. They hope to leverage the DocDoc platform to empower patients in making data-informed decisions thereby reducing medical complication rates, and expanding access to quality care across Asia. In short, the healthtech company desires to transform every patient’s healthcare journey by continuously partnering with corporations that share their vision of creating a consumer centric healthcare ecosystem.
Recommendations for the budding entrepreneurs
Cole’s advice to the younger generation is multifold. First, he suggests to forget about having a career. The world is changing far too fast to assume you will do one thing for the rest of your professional life. Instead, he recommends building valuable skills with each step. “Work on maximizing learning agility, learning how to learn is a critical skill that never goes out of style.”
Second, he recommends budding entrepreneurs to seek out a mission that is larger than themselves and go after it with full determination and dedication. He adds that the difference between winning and losing is most often persistence.
Lastly, he opines that there is an art to remaining stubborn about one’s mission, but at the same time being flexible about the process of achieving it. “Most people are wrong most of the time, so you have to try and try and try again. At the same time, you want to make sure you are learning and adjusting with each try, that you are listening to what the universe is trying to say.”
