Castle Connolly Medical Ltd.

What Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. does

Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. is a U.S. healthcare provider directory and physician recognition company founded in 1992 and headquartered in New York. The company identifies and recognizes top physicians (the top 7% of licensed U.S. doctors), top hospitals (1,663 in 2026, with 38 earning Gold Standard at the top 1%), and, as of June 2026, top dentists, using a proprietary peer-nomination process vetted by independent research review and an advisory board. Its core platform at castleconnolly.com enables patients to search providers by location, specialty, insurance accepted, and reason for visit, while also surfacing hospital quality rankings, practice listings, and condition/specialty editorial content. The platform is supplemented by Inclusive Excellence recognition lists (Top Black Doctors, Exceptional Women In Medicine, Top AAPI Doctors, Top LGBTQ+ Doctors, Top Hispanic & Latino Doctors) and a Castle Connolly Accolades program honoring top health systems and physician practices.

Castle Connolly monetizes primarily through B2B channels serving its recognized physicians and institutional partners. Doctors can purchase enhanced profile upgrades and promotional placements to increase visibility on the directory. Hospitals, physician practices, and dental practices can become Centers of Excellence partners through certification/partner fees, and institutional buyers can purchase Accolades-level recognition. The consumer-facing search experience is free. The company distributes its rankings through earned media partnerships with regional magazines and newspapers (e.g., Philadelphia Magazine, Austin Monthly, Desert Companion, Vegas Seven) and press release channels (prnewswire, globenewswire, stocktitan, financialcontent), extending reach beyond its owned digital properties. Castle Connolly operates as a property of Everyday Health Group, which is itself owned by Ziff Davis, giving it distribution leverage through the parent conglomerate's consumer health media network and operational support, but limiting its standalone strategic visibility.

Name

Castle Connolly Medical Ltd.

Legal name

Castle Connolly Medical, Ltd.

Website

https://castleconnolly.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1992

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. operates a U.S. healthcare provider directory and peer-reviewed recognition platform identifying top doctors, hospitals, and dentists for patients, monetizing through physician enhanced profiles, promotional placements, and Centers of Excellence institutional partnerships as a property of Ziff Davis.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Physician Enhanced Profiles: Doctors can purchase enhanced profile upgrades to display additional information on the Castle Connolly platform, providing a revenue stream from healthcare providers seeking increased visibility.
2. Promotional Opportunities for Doctors: Castle Connolly offers promotional opportunities for recognized physicians to enhance their visibility and attract more patients.
3. Centers of Excellence Partnerships: Partnership programs with hospitals and physician practices for Center of Excellence designation, creating revenue through certification and partnership fees.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. operates a peer-nomination-based healthcare provider directory and recognition platform that identifies and publicly recognizes the top 7% of U.S. physicians, top hospitals, and top dentists. Its primary sellable offerings to physicians, hospitals, and practices are paid enhanced profiles, promotional packages, and Center of Excellence / Accolades partnership designations, while consumers access the underlying directory free of charge at castleconnolly.com.

Product overview

Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. operates a healthcare provider directory and recognition platform with three core products: Castle Connolly Top Doctors (physician directory featuring the top 7% of U.S. doctors), Castle Connolly Top Hospitals (rankings of 1,663 hospitals across six specialties), and Castle Connolly Top Dentists (dental provider recognition). The portfolio also includes Castle Connolly Accolades for health system recognition and Centers of Excellence partnership programs. Inclusive Excellence Programs provide specialized recognition for Top Black Doctors, Exceptional Women In Medicine, Top AAPI Doctors, Top LGBTQ+ Doctors, and Top Hispanic & Latino Doctors. All offerings are built around a rigorous peer-nomination and research-based selection methodology with advisory board oversight.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Castle Connolly Top Doctors Physician directory and recognition program identifying the top 7% of licensed U.S. doctors (72,000+ in 2026) through peer nomination, independent research review, and advisory board oversight. Allows patients to search by location, specialty, insurance accepted, and reasons for visit; recognized physicians can purchase enhanced profile upgrades for additional visibility.
• Castle Connolly Top Hospitals Hospital ranking program recognizing 1,663 hospitals nationwide for excellence across six specialties and nineteen procedures, with 38 Gold Standard hospitals representing the top 1% nationally. Rankings combine all-payor outcomes data with physician peer-reviewed evaluations and support national, state, and metro-level comparison.
• Castle Connolly Top Dentists Dental provider recognition program expanded from the Top Doctors model to help patients find quality dental care amid increasingly complex dental insurance and rising out-of-pocket costs. Recognizes the top 1% of dentists in the United States.
• Castle Connolly Accolades Recognition program honoring top-tier health systems, hospitals, and physician practices for exceptional commitment to delivering high-quality care, with national and regional practice-level rankings such as #2 Physician Practice in the Nation for Dermatology.
• Centers of Excellence Partnership program for hospitals, physician practices, and dental practices meeting exceptional standards for quality care delivery; partners receive Center of Excellence designation, with distinct tracks for hospital partners, physician practice partners, and dental practice partners.
• Top AAPI Doctors Inclusive excellence program recognizing Top Asian American & Pacific Islander Doctors as part of Castle Connolly's diversity recognition initiatives.
• Top Black Doctors Inclusive excellence program recognizing Top Black Doctors as part of Castle Connolly's diversity recognition initiatives.
• Exceptional Women In Medicine Inclusive excellence program recognizing exceptional women physicians as part of Castle Connolly's diversity recognition initiatives.

Quantifiable outcome

• Nearly 60% of consumers are influenced by hospital rankings when choosing care providers
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Everyday Health GroupparentOthersCastle Connolly is a property of Everyday Health Group, a Ziff Davis company. This corporate relationship provides operational support, distribution leverage through the Everyday Health network of properties, and integration with broader consumer health platforms.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves1 record

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Zocdoc: Zocdoc is an online platform that lets patients search for doctors and book appointments by specialty, location, and insurance. It directly competes with Castle Connolly's consumer-facing provider search experience, adding transactional booking on top of discovery.
• Healthgrades: Healthgrades is a leading online directory of physicians and hospitals with consumer-facing ratings and reviews. It is the most direct competitor to Castle Connolly's doctor directory and recognition platform, serving patients searching for vetted healthcare providers.
• Vitals: Vitals is a doctor review and directory platform owned by WebMD/Internet Brands. It offers consumer-facing physician discovery with patient reviews and ratings, directly competing with Castle Connolly's search experience and methodology-driven recognition.
• U.S. News & World Report (Best Hospitals): U.S. News publishes the Best Hospitals rankings, the most well-known hospital ranking brand in the US. It is a direct peer to Castle Connolly's Top Hospitals program and competes for hospital recognition brand equity and consumer trust.
• Doximity: Doximity is a professional network for physicians that also surfaces physician profiles to patients via its DocFinder directory. It competes with Castle Connolly in physician discovery, though its primary audience is physicians rather than consumers.
• RateMDs: RateMDs is a doctor review and rating platform where patients rate physicians across multiple dimensions. It is a direct competitor as an alternative source of physician quality signals for consumer decision-making.

Emerging players

• The Leapfrog Group: Leapfrog is a healthcare watchdog organization that publishes hospital safety grades and quality ratings. It competes with Castle Connolly's Top Hospitals rankings as an alternative source of hospital quality benchmarking for consumer and employer decision-making.
• Yelp (Health Section): Yelp hosts consumer reviews of healthcare providers including doctors and dentists, providing free user-generated ratings at scale. While not a dedicated healthcare platform, it competes for top-of-funnel patient discovery before consumers reach curated directories.

Broad incumbents

• Healthline: Healthline is a broad consumer health information publisher that also surfaces provider-related content. As a broad incumbent in the consumer health information space, it competes for consumer attention with Castle Connolly's content marketing strategy.
• WebMD: WebMD is a broad consumer health information platform that includes provider directories through its subsidiary Vitals. As a sister property to Castle Connolly within the broader Ziff Davis/Internet Brands ecosystem, it is a broad incumbent in adjacent consumer health information.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/CastleConnolly
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@CastleConnollyTopDoctors
• Facebookfacebook.com/CastleConnollyTopDoctors
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/castle-connolly-medical-ltd.
• Instagraminstagram.com/castle_connilly

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments3 records

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Castle Connolly Medical Ltd.