The software we deserve: Vibe coding the future of health technology

The widespread adoption of electronic medical records (EMRs) has been an ongoing challenge for the past 30 years. Though recent upgrades to EMR platforms, such as Epic and Cerner PowerChart, have accelerated EMR adoption in Canada, implementation has lagged behind other OECD countries due to inconsistent funding and high implementation costs that can approach $100 million for large, multi-hospital systems. As well, some EMRs lack the customizability that providers may desire for a specific clinical workflow or these features may only be available at an additional cost.

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools have introduced a new model of user-friendly software creation, termed vibe coding. Introduced by Andrej Karpathy in February 2025, vibe coding describes the creation of functional software through natural language prompts with AI tools such as ChatGPT, Bolt.new and Lovable. These platforms can generate, debug and iterate code without requiring programming expertise.

In this context, clinicians are positioned to build functional, bespoke tools that address daily workflow challenges overlooked by large EMR providers. Vibe coding provides an inclusive path forward, opening digital efficiencies to smaller organizations and resource-limited clinicians that have traditionally been the domain of large, well-funded health-care organizations.

Traditional software development historically required expert programmers and large budgets, with costs in the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Vibe coding reduces both financial and technical barriers by allowing individuals to describe functionality in plain language and receive working applications in return. Prototypes can now be developed for less than $USD 30 using widely available webapps. Rather than adding burdens, this empowers clinicians to test and share solutions with peers, with minimal time and financial investment. For smaller organizations, this levels the playing field.

Examples already exist. Clinicians have developed prednisone taper calculators, annotation tools for procedural findings and decision-support checklists exportable into EMRs. Others have built educational resources, such as differential diagnosis trainers and insulin-blood sugar simulators. Enterprise-level experiments have also begun, exploring integrations for referral management, patient onboarding and clinical trial coordination.

These grassroots innovations may reveal workflow bottlenecks unknown to information technology (IT) staff and opportunities to improve care delivery. In doing so, vibe coding becomes a pathway toward equity, giving clinicians across all settings a voice in shaping the digital tools they use every day. With proper oversight and governance, IT teams should collaborate with clinicians, treating vibe-coded tools as low-cost pilot projects. Such an approach ensures frontline clinician insights are captured and allows smaller health-care organizations to innovate.

Despite its potential for innovation, however, security and privacy remain paramount. Vibe-coded tools must never process personal health information (PHI), and even local “client-side” applications risk storing sensitive data insecurely. Debugging and maintainability are also challenges, as clinicians may lack the expertise to detect subtle errors or support long-term reliability.

Regulatory standards present additional barriers. Health Canada and organizational IT policies impose strict requirements on clinical software, limiting vibe coding to non-PHI, low-risk applications unless governance evolves. Questions of equity also persist: while coding reduces costs, it may still favour more technologically adept clinicians, leaving others behind.

Critics argue that low-cost, clinician-built tools risk errors or legal liability. Yet, similar concerns once surrounded open-source medical calculators, many of which are now standard practice. The issue is not whether clinicians should build, but how organizations can create guardrails so that innovation flourishes safely. With structured oversight, vibe coding has the potential to expand equity in digital health rather than undermine it.

Vibe coding represents a potentially transformative approach to health informatics. By lowering barriers to entry, it empowers clinicians to act as both developers and end users, aligning digital tools with real-world workflows and addressing longstanding gaps in EMR systems. By embracing clinician-driven innovation and with the support of proper safeguards, vibe coding can ensure fairness in digital health and that budgets are not the sole dictator of clinical tool accessibility.