Zocdoc CEO: I’ve watched Walmart, IBM, and others try to ‘disrupt’ healthcare. Here’s why they failed

After working in healthcare technology for 30 years, including nearly two decades building Zocdoc, I’ve developed a habit.

Every time a company announces it’s going to “disrupt healthcare,” I start a mental clock.

How long until they discover healthcare does not yield to disruption playbooks? By this, I mean: building a system outside of the existing one, scaling it quickly, and forcing incumbents to adapt or disappear.

Don’t mistake me.

Healthcare desperately needs fixing and people who are willing to take ambitious swings at improving it.

I commend all fellow travelers working to improve healthcare.

But nowhere is it more true that ideas are easy and execution is hard than in healthcare.

Just look at the track record.

Wave after wave of companies — from big tech to digital health, retail to pharma — has tried to reinvent healthcare.

Haven — the joint venture launched by Amazon , Berkshire Hathaway , and JPMorgan Chase in 2018 to simplify health benefits and lower costs for their combined 1.2 million employees — disbanded in February 2021, after not quite three years, following a string of executive departures including CEO Atul Gawande.

Walmart Health launched clinics in 2019 offering primary and dental care at low, transparent prices; in April 2024, Walmart announced it would close all 51 clinics across five states, along with its virtual-care service, saying the business “is not a sustainable model.” IBM Watson Health launched in 2015 with a pledge to use AI to improve cancer treatment recommendations; seven years later, in 2022, IBM sold the bulk of the unit — including Watson for Oncology — to private equity firm Francisco Partners in a deal reportedly worth about $1 billion, a fraction of the roughly $4 billion IBM had invested.

Babylon Health, the UK-founded startup that promised AI-powered primary care through an app, went public via SPAC in 2021 at a valuation north of $4 billion; two years later, in August 2023, its US operations filed for bankruptcy and its UK business was sold off in a fire-sale deal.

With AI ushering in the next technology cycle, healthcare is once again about to be disrupted.

Revolutionized.