He Left a Stanford PhD Behind—Now His Company is Helping Clinics Code Their Own EMR Fixes
Slice of Healthcare Team
May 29, 2025
Canvas Medical, founded by Andrew Hines, is giving care teams something they've rarely had: control. Not through a bloated enterprise system or a shiny app, but with developer tools baked into the EMR itself. That control is helping them cut out inefficiencies, reduce delays, and tailor their workflows—all without waiting on outside vendors.
And yes, it’s being done in brick-and-mortar clinics as much as telehealth startups.
High-Level Description
Canvas is more than an electronic medical record system. It’s a customizable platform for ambulatory care practices that want to do things their way—whether that means scheduling follow-ups faster, automating prior auths, or embedding clinical decision support.
What sets Canvas apart is its built-in software development kit. Clinics can use it to build proprietary tools, automate admin work, and shape the system around their model of care. Some are pushing out fixes and workflow changes in hours—not months.
It’s not a no-code tool for hobbyists. It’s a developer-grade environment that’s helping practices operate more like tech companies—without giving up their clinical roots.
How It All Started
Andrew Hines didn’t plan to start a health tech company. His career began in computational math and engineering, where he built inference models for hotels. But the work felt distant. Through his wife, then in nursing school, he got a closer look at how healthcare actually ran—and how outdated the software side of it was.
A role at Practice Fusion gave him his first real taste of the EMR world. By 2015, he launched Canvas with the belief that practices should be able to build on top of their systems, not be boxed in by them.
Why It Stands Out
Most EMRs require filing a ticket, waiting months for updates, and compromising on how care teams work. Canvas flips that model. It’s built for developers and product teams inside care organizations—people who want to spot friction and solve it themselves.
One practice has close to 100 proprietary extensions. Others are using Canvas’s tools to roll out their own co-pilots and workflow improvements on a near-daily basis. Whether it's automating scheduling or improving decision support, they’re doing it in-house, with fewer bottlenecks.
For teams that have a vision for how they want to deliver care—and the desire to move quickly—Canvas makes that possible.
What It Took to Get Here
Canvas didn’t launch overnight. It took years—and millions in investment—to build what Hines calls the “core platform” the right way. That includes full federal certification, a modular architecture, and a developer experience that reflects the needs of real clinics.
The first developer tools rolled out in 2021. In late 2024, Canvas made the full SDK generally available. Since then, it’s become a quiet engine behind practices that want to modernize without switching systems every few years.
One Practice’s Game-Changer
When Canvas enabled customers to build their own scheduling tools, one practice used it to solve a nagging issue: follow-up appointments that weren’t getting booked. Within a day, they had their own automation in place. That’s not just more efficient—it’s care that doesn’t slip through the cracks.
Others have done the same for prior auths, documentation shortcuts, and panel management—improvements that used to require quarters of back-and-forth with vendors, now handled in-house with Canvas tools.
Who It's Built For
Canvas works best for ambulatory practices—those not in hospitals or surgery centers—that want to take ownership of their model of care. Ideal partners tend to have 10 to 300 clinicians and a clear point of view on how they want to operate.
They often come to Canvas after realizing their current EMR can’t support the changes they need. Some are switching from legacy systems. Others are moving on from so-called “modern” EMRs that weren’t as flexible as promised.
Where It’s Going
Hines and his team are doubling down on AI agents, automation, and developer collaboration. They’re working across complex areas like oncology, dementia, pediatrics, and renal care—fields where the right support tools can save time and improve quality.
Canvas doesn’t promise to know what every practice needs. Instead, it offers a foundation where each clinic can figure that out—and build it—on their own terms.
Conclusion
Canvas Medical isn’t loud about what it’s doing—but its users are building things that matter. In a world where healthcare software often feels slow and rigid, Canvas gives practices a way to move fast and stay in control.
Want to learn more? Visit canvasmedical.com or connect on LinkedIn: Canvas Medical.
Catch the full conversation with Andrew Hines on Slice of Healthcare: Episode 497
