Meet Dr. Marc Berzansky: A Family Physician Who Builds Real Connections in Virtual Care

Our Doctors

Great medical care isn’t just about diagnoses and prescriptions, it’s about connection. For Dr. Marc Berzansky, DO, Family Physician, building trust and forming genuine relationships with patients is at the center of everything he does.

With a background in family medicine and sports medicine plus more than a decade of experience in telemedicine, Dr. Berzansky brings both clinical expertise and a personal approach to virtual care.

His path into telemedicine was shaped by a desire to balance medicine with family life, allowing him to care for patients while also being present for his three daughters as they grow up.

In this interview, Dr. Berzansky shares how he became interested in medicine, what led him to telemedicine, and how he creates meaningful doctor–patient relationships during virtual visits.

Who Is Dr. Berzansky?

Dr. Marc Berzansky is a board-certified family physician based in California. He completed his training in family medicine and began his career with a focus on sports medicine, working in a clinic in Sacramento before expanding into telemedicine.

He first started practicing telemedicine about 10 years ago as a way to supplement his in-person clinical work.

Over time, virtual care became a central part of his practice, offering the flexibility to continue practicing medicine while raising his family.

Dr. Berzansky has now been working with DrHouse for about two years, where he treats a broad range of common medical concerns across all age groups, similar to what patients would expect from a traditional family doctor.

Dr. Berzansky at a glance:

• Board-certified family physician (DO) with 26 years of medical experience.
• Background in family medicine and sports medicine
• Over 10 years of telemedicine experience
• Known for a personable and conversational style of care
• Practices virtually with DrHouse

Family medicine appealed to Dr. Berzansky because it allowed him to work with many different types of patients and conditions. Today, that same variety is part of what he enjoys most about practicing medicine online, where each visit brings a new patient and a new story.

Interview With Dr. Berzansky

We spoke with Dr. Berzansky about his path into medicine, what drew him to telemedicine, and how he approaches caring for patients virtually. Below, he shares his perspective in his own words.

Can You Briefly Introduce Yourself, Your Background, and What You Focus On Clinically?

Yeah, my name is Dr. Marc Berzansky. I’m a board-certified family practice doctor here in California, and I’ve been working with DrHouse for around two years.

I started with sports medicine during residency and did sports medicine for a clinic in Sacramento, California. Then I started doing online telemedicine about 10 years ago.

I started doing it on the side because my wife and I had moved and we needed a little bit more cash, so I started doing telemedicine kind of as an adjunct to my clinical practice.

Then we started having kids. Life gets busy and hard, so telemedicine lets me be able to stay at home. When the kids had things at school, like a seven-year-old violin concerto that made you go deaf because they were so young, I was able to go to all the kids’ stuff at the schools. 

I helped at the preschool. I was the only dad that showed up on preschool volunteer days because I could. I loved it.

The more kids we had, the more I wanted to do medicine so I could see my own kids.

I have three daughters. Three daughters, yeah, it’s a blessing. One of them is still a teenager, and the other two have gone off to college. They were really sporty like I was, always a rough-and-tumble type. Thank God they looked like my wife.

There are five of us in my family. The first became a doc. He is a family practice doctor back in Massachusetts. Then my sister got her PhD in psychology. So the three of us went into medicine, and the other two are kind of the glue in the family. They hold everything together.

What Made You Want to Become a Doctor?

I don’t know. My mom loves this story and tells it all the time. When I was about five, we were playing wiffle ball in the street, and I found a dead frog. A frog that was so flat it was flatter than flat. I picked it up, scraped it off, and put it in a bucket of water, and kept it in my underwear drawer.

Two weeks later, my mom was putting away laundry and said, ‘What the hell is that smell?’ So my mom always says I was always trying to save stuff since I was four years old.

And then the word doctor comes from docere, D-O-C-E-R-E. I was a Latin and Greek major in high school, so I don’t know why. But docere means to teach, and I’ve always been kind of a natural teacher. I like explaining things. I don’t know if I’m good at it, but I like doing it.

Why Did You Choose to Practice Telemedicine and Work With DrHouse?

I started doing telemedicine about 10 years ago. I was doing it part time while I was still practicing clinical medicine. The idea was that I could work in clinical medicine and then do this on the weekends and evenings.

The company I was working with got bought by a bigger company, and they started saying you had to work during the day and mandatory on weekends and holidays. They wanted me to work holidays, and I felt like holidays and birthdays are the one chance you have to see your kids and enjoy life. So when they started requiring that, I said no.

I found DrHouse while exploring other telemedicine opportunities, and it turned out to be a great fit.

I tell every person who interviews with you guys that this is the nicest company I’ve worked for in my 26-year career. From the first person I met to the highest people in the company, everyone is incredibly nice.

Every interaction is respectful. People say thank you and have a good day. I’ve worked for six or seven companies in my career, and DrHouse is a standard deviation above the norm.

How Do You Build Trust With Patients During a Virtual Visit?

I try to put the video right near where the camera is so it looks like I’m looking them in the eye. The worst is when a doctor is looking somewhere else and the camera is off to the side. 

I have six screens here, so it’s hard sometimes, but with DrHouse I try to keep everything more in the middle because I see a lot of patients with you guys.

My sister has a PhD in psychology, and she told me about using hand gestures. So with each patient I wave hello and wave goodbye. It’s an act of familiarity. People typically don’t wave in a professional setting, but by doing that it helps create a connection.

Those are the non-tangible things. It’s almost like a trick, if you will.

And then I think I genuinely like talking to people. I like creating a short little relationship in three minutes. Probably about 40 percent of visits are cut and dry, like a woman with a UTI or someone with a cold, and it’s very straightforward. But a lot of the time you can still create some kind of relationship.

How Do You Connect With Patients During Short Visits?

A lot of it is just personality. I like to laugh and joke around.

Whenever there’s a young kid, usually around nine to twelve years old, at the end of the appointment, I’ll say there’s one other thing that will make you feel better faster. 

I stay serious and finish the diagnosis and everything, and right before I hang up I’ll say that doing lots and lots of chores for your parents will help you get better.

The kids will look at me like, is he serious? Then they look at their parents and back at me because they want one of us to smile. I’ve been doing that for about 25 years.

I do it for the parents, because they’re usually nervous when their kids are sick. It helps break the tension. Some kids get mad at me, but probably 95 percent laugh. The parents love it.

When people share a laugh or even a cry, they’re more likely to come back because they have an emotional attachment.

What Do You Enjoy Most About Caring for Patients?

I think I genuinely like talking to people and creating that short relationship during a visit.

Who I really love seeing are the older women. The women who are around 80 years old. I always wonder how they’re getting online because computers didn’t exist for most of their lives.

My mom is 85, and I think I have a soft spot for older women because of that. My mom always said elderly women love to be complimented, and that stuck with me.

So sometimes I’ll tell them they only look 70, and they get all giggly. I’ll say I’ll call in the prescription if they tell me where the fountain of youth is.

It’s not about tricking them. It’s just about creating a connection. For a few seconds you can see them come alive. It’s just one human connecting with another.

What’s Something Patients Might Be Surprised to Learn About You?

I’m probably not as serious as people expect their doctor to be. My mom is 85 and every year on my birthday she asks me, ‘When are you going to become serious?’ She knows I’m kind of goofy and playful by nature.

My brother is also a doctor, and he’s very serious. He’s a great doctor. I actually think he’s a better doctor than I am, but he’s very serious, and that’s just not really my style.

I like to laugh and joke around with patients. Sooner or later I’ll probably get in trouble for being too jovial, but I think it helps people feel more comfortable.

People say you often look for a doctor who reminds you of one of your parents. If your parents were strict, you might want a serious doctor. If one of your parents was more relaxed or playful, you might prefer a doctor like that. Every patient has their own needs when they come to a visit.”

Care That Connects People

Dr. Berzansky believes that even short virtual visits can feel personal when doctors take the time to connect with patients. Whether he is using humor to put a nervous parent at ease or finding small ways to relate to patients of different ages, his goal is to make each visit feel comfortable and human.

After more than a decade in telemedicine, he continues to value the opportunity to meet patients where they are and help them understand their health in practical ways.

Today, Dr. Berzansky sees patients through virtual visits on DrHouse, combining years of family medicine experience with a personable and conversational style that helps patients feel at ease.