Marketplace · Tuesday, July 7, 2026
A new model of 'drive-through healthcare' is emerging, characterized by quick, transactional interactions, often online or at urgent care centers, contrasting with traditional long-term patient-physician relationships. This shift is driven by inefficiencies in the healthcare system, long wait times for primary care physicians, and a consumer desire for more immediate access and agency in their healthcare decisions.
“So I thought of this in the context of like, if the old-fashioned family doctor was like a family restaurant where it's like, they knew you, they knew your order, you've been going there for years, then this kind of healthcare service that has become really prominent in the past few years is what I think of as drive-through healthcare, where it's more of like a one-time only, you're pulling up, you're looking at a menu, you probably already know what you want, you're selecting the products, you're ordering your Big Mac or your GLP-1 prescription, and you go through a very routinized interaction with a clinician and that's that.”
“And so, yeah, there's been a big push and it's a combination of things from like pharmaceutical companies pushing us products and being like, hey, go and ask your doctor about this, and you've obviously had the telehealth revolution, which has made it a lot easier to have this kind of instantaneous access with a healthcare provider.”
“Medicine is, you know, as much of an art as anything else. And like those longitudinal relationships between doctors and patients are how you like pick up on subtle signs that like, oh, maybe there's a problem developing and we want to try to get ahead of it with some early interventions.”