All-New Doctor.com Unites Powerful Doctor Search with Unique Social Media Features.

Employs Next Generation Technologies to Help Users Quickly Find Local Doctors and Medical Professionals Who Accept Their Health Insurance

NEW YORK -- The all-new www.doctor.com, launching today, is a remarkably easy-to-use physician directory that lets consumers quickly find a doctor or other health professional based on geographic location, medical specialty and even health insurance affiliation. With a beta version of the site quietly launched in August, Doctor.com has already been attracting attention for its powerful tools, ease of use, and innovative social elements. In addition to doctor search, visitors use the site to research provider qualifications, share doctor reviews, and download office paperwork in advance of their appointment. Doctor.com's proprietary database includes detailed profiles for more than a million physicians, dentists, nurses, chiropractors, therapists, alternative medicine practitioners and other health professionals. In addition to listing providers' contact information and health insurance affiliations, the site also gives consumers such valuable information as gender, spoken language(s), office hours, and credentials like medical education, board certifications, and professional training.

"No other consumer Web site offers our combination of powerful search features and detailed provider information," claims Andrei Zimiles, general manager of Doctor.com. "We invested heavily to ensure that the site would truly make people's lives easier. For example, we show users which insurance plans doctors accept. Surprisingly, while the majority of users searching online are insured, most of today's largest medical sites don't include this information in their doctor listings."

The "hard" data on Doctor.com is augmented by unique social media features that enable consumers to review and rate healthcare providers they know. "Nearly every medical professional licensed to practice in the United States has a Doctor.com profile - that means our visitors have a lot of options," added Zimiles. "By empowering users to share their experiences and recommend exceptional doctors to the rest of the community, we help people narrow their search to the providers best aligned with their needs. This is the critical human element that is missing from typical doctor directories."

Marketing Resources for Medical Professionals:

In addition to its consumer-facing features, Doctor.com also offers health professionals attractive marketing opportunities that generate targeted local Web traffic and can help to grow a medical practice.

"Professionals can claim their free Doctor.com profile to add or edit basic information and keep it up to date," added Zimiles. "We also offer powerful marketing options to increase the provider's prominence in search results and their overall exposure across the Web, particularly in major search engines like Google and Yahoo!. With an upgraded profile, professional users can also add supplemental content such as photos and videos that showcase their practice and forms for patients to download."

Feedback from early adopters who have upgraded their professional profiles has been unanimously positive. Dr. Fara Nosratian, a California-based general and cosmetic dentist, was one of the first doctors to upgrade her profile. "I'm very pleased with my upgraded Doctor.com profile," says Dr. Nosratian. "I really like the idea of being able to give patients a sense of what to expect during their first visit. The feature that lets me upload my standard new patient forms to the site is also excellent. When I get patients to arrive with all their paperwork already filled out, it really cuts down waiting room time."

Supplemental Information for Web/Technical Editors:

Web Technologies Enhance User Experience

Doctor.com features an AJAX-driven mashup of Google Maps, GeoIP targeting and proprietary data to help people find local doctors who accept their health insurance in the fastest and easiest way possible. Search results are displayed on an expandable map as well as in traditional list format.

Queries to Doctor.com's database of more than 1.2 million provider profiles are executed with remarkable speed thanks to a combination of database optimizations, caching, and Akamai-powered content delivery.

To insure continual record accuracy, programmers at Doctor.com created a unique data-parsing algorithm that applies more than 100 rules to scrub and normalize multiple sources of provider and health insurance data. Refreshed monthly, the Doctor.com database is believe to be the most comprehensive - and accurate - doctor directory on the Web today.

About Doctor.com:

Doctor.com is a next-generation website dedicated to helping people find local medical professionals who accept their health insurance. With more than a million providers listed, Doctor.com has a profile for nearly every individual licensed to practice medicine in the United States. The site combines dynamic maps with detailed provider data and user recommendations to take the guess work out of finding the right doctor online.

For health professionals, Doctor.com represents a compelling opportunity to increase online visibility, attract new business, and strengthen bonds with existing patients. Professional users can claim their profile for free, or upgrade to a premium package that includes increased prominence in search results and additional features that streamline interactions with both new and existing patients.

For more information visit www.Doctor.com.