Every week we publish an interview with one of our many ZocDoc patients. If you’d like to be one of the patients profiled in this interview, just send us an email at patientfile@zocdoc.com.

Every week we publish an interview with one of our many ZocDoc patients. If you’d like to be one of the patients profiled in this interview, just send us an email at patientfile@zocdoc.com.

Every week we publish an interview with one of our many ZocDoc patients. If you’d like to be one of the patients profiled in this interview, just send us an email at patientfile@zocdoc.com.

“I want to get back to where I was when I was sick. Isn't that weird?” For someone who was diagnosed with and survived Stage IV, Grade 4 renal cell carcinoma at a very late stage, yes. That sounds weird.

Here at ZocDoc, we like to think that our site is designed with one person in mind: you, the patient! So naturally, it's about time we got to know you a little better. Starting today, we're going start publishing interviews with our ZocDoc patients. If you'd like to be one of the patients profiled in this interview, just send us an email at patientfile@zocdoc.com.

Richard Alvarez, a leader in Canadian healthcare, is known for taking on challenging mandates and building successful organizations. As President and Chief Executive Officer of Canada Health Infoway, he has been a catalyst for accelerating the development of electronic health records in Canada. We talked to Richard about his plans for advancing Canada’s health care system and the enigmatic “meaningful use.”

Professor Chris P. Lee is currently Assistant Professor of Operations and Information Management at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School where he has won several awards for his teaching. Chris served in analyst and VP roles in Canada’s CIBC and the BMO Group as well as Silicon Valley’s WellNet Inc. (now part of The Health Central Network). Chris was nominated and awarded by the Institute for Management Science and Operations Research (INFORMS) three times, and is also a co-investigator on a $4.4 million United States Department of Defense research project. We had the chance to talk to Chris about the operations of health care, where we fall short, and what we’re doing right.

Nancy A. Aossey is President & CEO of International Medical Corps (IMC), an international non-governmental organization dedicated to saving lives and relieving suffering through medical relief, health care training, and development programs that build self-reliance. Under Nancy’s nearly two-and-a-half-decade stewardship, International Medical Corps has delivered life-saving assistance to tens of millions of the world’s most vulnerable people. We sat down with her to talk about how she does it.

Some things you may not know about Denmark: It rains, on average, every other day. They have the oldest national flag in the world. And their health care system uses electronic communication. Imagine going to see a new doctor and not having to fill out all the new patient forms because your information is online for the doctor to see. Imagine no more faxing over records from your previous doctor, no more waiting for your x-rays to be delivered, and no more waiting at the pharmacy – just fast, efficient care. We were lucky enough to sit down and talk with Ib Johansen, whose work at Medcom is instrumental in making Denmark's system run smoothly.

Paul Mango is a Director in the Pittsburgh office of McKinsey & Company, where he leads the Global Health Care Practice. Working with some of the country’s largest health insurers and  providers organizations with an emphasis on health reform, we sat down with Paul to discuss how real health care reform really starts at home.