On cars and what’s driving the future of medicine

I'm in love with my car Got to feel for my automobile Get a grip on my boy racer roll barSuch a thrill when your radials squeal —Roger Taylor (Queen)I am looking to purchase a new (or at least a certified, pre-owned and remarketed) car. It's always exciting, yet intimidating to venture into the car world as an individual whose sole concept of a vehicle is to get from point A to point B. I know nothing about the mechanical stats of my vehicle’s engine, size or horsepower. Truth be told, I need to look at my registration to remember the make and year of my vehicles. I know more about my bikes than I do about my cars. I do know that every fill of my gas tank hurts a lot more now than it used to. These trumped-up-trade-war-gulf-strait-fiascos have jacked up prices at the pump to the point that even living on top of the richest fossil fuel deposits in the country is not enough. I am looking at the possibilities of a less gas/gas-less future. So, is this a newest tech, smaller, more gas efficient vehicle? Or is this a hybrid? Do I take the all-in plunge to fully electric? I make a lot of road trips from Calgary to Kelowna, B.C. For anyone who has taken this spectacularly scenic and sometimes tortuous route, you will know that there are stretches without cell phone coverage (even in 2026). The driving distance is more than quoted capacity of most electric vehicles. Throw in colder temperatures and efficiencies start dropping significantly. So do I really want to add in another 30-minute-plus charge time to a seven-hour white knuckler drive? This is progress? This blog is not an attempt to have the Medical Post readership solve my car buying woes, although I welcome any opinions about how you are doing with your current hybrid/electric vehicle. Rather, I want to discuss the current combustible state of medical practice to its electrifying future. Sometimes it is easier to understand medicine and healthcare when we step away and look outside of it. Let’s consider the automobile. For years now in North America, we have relied on our gas-powered cars for much of our everyday transport, whether it be for shopping, work or just getting around socially. Our cars are functional, familiar and can be part of our personas. They have become increasingly powerful, efficient and adaptable. Today’s gas-powered vehicles jumble together factors including fuel, combustion, mechanical components, lubrication, cooling, exhaust and maintenance. Why change a good thing? Healthcare is an equally complicated episodic, labour-intensive, clinician-centred ultimately driven by the efforts of individual humans. Why change another good thing? Well . . . using a car analogy, “driving” this system is becoming more expensive, more unreliable, with frequent stalls and breakdowns. The system is past warranty and the bills are adding up. The clinician is the engine and the gasoline is knowledge, experience and clinical judgment. Much of our energy is used up just keeping the engine running—keeping up with admin. We spend far too much time collecting histories, reconciling medications, reviewing lab results, interpreting DI reports, searching algorithms and guidelines, constructing notes, completing forms, communicating with colleagues, responding to messages, managing unmanageable inboxes, and navigating endless administrative duties. None of these are inherently bad, but they chew up a lot of time and take away from our central purpose: understanding our patients and making solid clinical decisions on their behalf. Our traditional model worked well when information was scarce. But that time is past. Things have become increasingly strained now that information is abundant. Our google-infused, AI-enhanced present. And dare I say inevitable future. So about that hybrid. This represents a transitional technology. It introduces a new source of power. The physician remains at the centre of all, but with an augmented status. We still have our traditional (gas powered) system but have another power source at our disposal (newer digital technologies, AI etc.). The true hybrid model is not just a digitization of our existing work (EMR, faxes, digital forms, dictations). It is using technology to redistribute work between “us and the machines” according to relative and respective strengths. The hybrid model works when it deliberately triages each task to the appropriate system. Medical technology has become efficient at processing enormous amounts of information, detecting patterns, performing repetitive tasks, and maintaining continuous vigilance. We, human MDs, remain exceptional at keeping things in context, regarding clinical judgment, empathy, ethical reasoning, communication, dealing with ambiguity, and understanding what matters to our patient, that is, another human being. The risk of a hybrid is morphing together two disparate worlds and losing the best of both in the process. A lose-lose scenario. OK then, what about the electric version? ALL IN! Save our precious fossil fuels and hope that your source of electricity is not coming from coal powered plants. Let’s be clear, this is NOT an old car chassis with a bigger battery. The all-electric vehicle is fully new, being designed around its battery from the ground up, and not the other way around. Our current struggle with many of our newer technologies, revolves around trying to ram them into existing systems that we are still desperately clinging to. At this point, starting from ground zero to create a new medical system is impossible. New technology and AI are scary enough. But similar to our fully computerized cars, we don’t have to understand how it all works, we just have to know their capabilities and limitations, embrace them and DRIVE! That is not being naïve, it is being pragmatic. I have no idea how a fax machine works, but I have faithfully used one for decades. The difference now, it’s paperless. And (oops . . . bad example) soon to be defunct.If we were to rebuild our systems from scratch using all the newest technologies available to us, we might find ourselves spending a lot less time searching for information and more time interpreting it. Less time documenting and more time making decisions. Less administrative time and more time understanding the patient. No longer information processor but freed to be an interpreter of information, decision-maker and trusted advocate. Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it! Electric vehicles are all about energy storage. In healthcare, the equivalent may be clinical data. We are generating extraordinary amounts of it—but having extra doesn’t necessarily make it increasingly usable or useful. The future isn’t about collecting more, it’s about converting this into useful, contextual information that is actionable. Identifying what matters right now. A societal shift to all electric vehicles would mean a fully new infrastructure, full of many, well-placed and efficient charging stations, at a bare minimum. We are making progress, albeit painfully slowly. Is it an oxymoron that many electric charging stations are at gas stations? Or is this as good as it gets for now. Perhaps this is akin to the current transformation of our medical systems which instantly defers back to the “good old days” when technology hiccups with a glitch. The naysayers are quick to quip “See I told you so” when we seemingly take any steps backward. Human nature loves the status quo, even when it is slowly failing us. Change is difficult and not guaranteed to lead to a better place. But sticking to our analogy, I am no longer content with the status quo of our gas guzzling medical system and know that we need to incorporate these new technologies now. I am leaning strongly toward a plug-in hybrid car with solar panels on the garage roof. I sold my horse and buggy on Market Place a few years ago and maybe I’ll give Virgin Galactic a call about their future space flights. All aboard! The future is now!! Dr. Ted Jablonski is a performing artist and writer who has retired from family practice to focus on sexual medicine and transgender health in Southern Alberta, while continuing front-line work in acute primary care.

On cars and what’s driving the future of medicine

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