It’s Your Life’s Work,
but it’s Also Your Life.
We believe that the EMR should be a scientific tool,
not a clerical burden.
The Canvas Oath
Why do we practice?
We practice because we know we can be better.
Sacrifice is expected. Breakthroughs are rare.
There’s no going "back to paper.” But we won’t stop here.
You took an oath to become a doctor. We take an oath to become your partner.
The people of Canvas Medical pledge:
To listen deeply and debate constructively as we pursue a shared vision for thriving independent primary care in America.
To fight to reduce the clinical burden of technology, bureaucracy and regulation on your life and work.
To create software that encourages autonomy, camaraderie, safety and mastery; and thus nurtures your most vital asset — joy of practice.
We will chart forward, together.
Rooted in Empathy,
Aided by Technology.
The Story of Canvas.
Canvas was founded in 2015 by a data scientist who was astonished and moved to action by the burden that typical EMRs place on clinicians.
Andrew Hines watched as his wife, Anna, a family nurse practitioner, wasted endless hours of their family time finishing charting. Often moved to profound frustration, Anna was losing faith in her calling. Andrew began asking questions, watching as she clicked between countless dropdowns and templates, and quickly developed a hypothesis. Combatting the growing crisis of faith amongst clinicians would require an EMR that utilizes clean, structured data in an intuitive, human-centered format, to deliver better patient outcomes and better quality of life for primary care clinicians and their care teams.
We started from scratch,
designing a new EMR
with the end-user in mind.
Andrew set out to shift the paradigm of what an EMR can and should be. Since that day, Canvas has been devoted to shattering expectations, offering a fully integrated Health IT suite for their partners. Canvas treats their partners as members of their own team, and works tirelessly to meet and exceed their needs.
It is our passion, and our duty, to support
the independent primary care clinicians
who treat and protect us.
The Canvas
Leadership Team
United by a shared vision to humanize the EMR experience.
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Andrew Hines
Chief Executive Officer
Andrew is a data scientist, software engineer and entrepreneur. He holds a BS in Mathematical Statistics and Business Administration from SFSU and an MS in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University.
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Andrew’s entrepreneurial spirit started young. As a teenager, he launched a disruptive technology-powered surfboard company, one of the first in the world to design surfboards with 3D parametric modeling software and manufacture them with robots. He sold the company at 19 and convinced San Francisco State University to admit him despite weak grades from spending most of his high school years building a business. Andrew excelled at SFSU and moved on to Stanford to pursue a PhD in Management Science. It was there that he met Art Norins, founder of a Nor1, a technology company for the travel industry, when he spoke as a guest lecturer. Andrew was captivated by Art’s vision, and soon left Stanford to became the company’s first analytics employee, where he led large-scale data science teams in developing Nor1’s core technology for the travel industry. After several years, Andrew was ready to address a more complicated phenomenon—human health. He co-founded a food and healthcare technology company and then was a Senior Software Engineer at Practice Fusion, where he built one of the largest real-time analytics tools in healthcare. He quickly realized that in order to build a data model that enabled a better user experience for clinicians, he needed to start from scratch with a new company. In developing Canvas Medical, Andrew is driven by the human connection, the immediate and forceful impact his work provides, and the continuous improvement in emotional intelligence it requires. Andrew enjoys free time with his wife and son, surfing, trail running and traveling to anywhere the waves provide a challenge.
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Michael Zimmerman, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Zimmerman, Chief Medical Director of Canvas and co-owner of Temescal Creek Medicine, a family practice in Oakland, California, is a board-certified family physician and healthcare leader driven by his desire to improve the healthcare system for both providers and the patients they serve. He is dedicated to providing personalized, community-based, and affordable healthcare that helps adults and children realize their capacity to live, grow and be vital.
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An alumnus of the UCSF/California Health Care Foundation Health Care Leadership Program, Michael has been actively involved in defining, articulating and leading the quality care imperative for medical group leadership and for community physicians. He was formerly Chief Medical Officer at Affinity Medical Group, a Northern California IPA that cares for nearly 30,000 patients. Michael received his M.D. from Case Western Reserve University and completed training at Ventura County Medical Center Family Practice Residency. He lives in Oakland with his wife and two children and enjoys cycling, baseball and travel with his family.
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Beau Gunderson
Chief Technology Officer
Beau, Canvas Medical’s Chief Technology Officer, is a data engineer with a focus on health and genetic data. He likens his role at Canvas to that of a gardener, planting the seeds for new technology that helps clinicians and their patients thrive, nurturing its growth, and judiciously pruning any processes that complicate the platform as needed.
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Beau believes that empathy should be a core competency of anyone making software. He is passionate about writing software that helps people and about supporting and motivating his team towards excellence. Before Canvas, Beau worked with Andrew Hines at Practice Fusion and helped move science forward at Open Humans Foundation, a platform where anyone can upload, connect, and store personal data and join and contribute to diverse research projects. He currently serves on the Board of Directors at Open Humans and has been a contributor to nearly 300 open source projects. Beau lives in the Pacific Northwest and enjoys motorcycle touring, photography, and making music in his free time.
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Mel van Londen
VP of Product Management
Mel, Canvas Medical’s VP of Product Management, is a technically-minded product manager with RCM subject matter expertise. He is a strong proponent of value-based care delivery models to align patient-outcomes with financial incentives.
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Mel practices a user-centered approach to building products. He is passionate about building process that promotes ownership and fosters cross-disciplinary collaboration. Previously, Mel worked at IDEO as an interaction designer and prototype developer. Before his time at IDEO, Mel worked as a software engineer in financial tech. He lives in Palo Alto with his wife and enjoys cycling, sailing, and backpacking.
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Saharsh Patel, M.D.
VP of Strategy and Operations
Saharsh joined Canvas in 2020 as a VP of Strategy and Operations. As a physician, he felt the agonizing pain inflicted by incumbent EHR software. He saw the weight EHRs were placing on his teams, its contribution to burnout, and the barriers it put up to providing meaningful care. He heard the many reasons other entrepreneurs and investors were avoiding building EHR software, but his personal experience convinced him that reinventing the EHR was foundational for a better healthcare system. The EHR touches patients, providers, and payors, but serves none of them effectively.
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At Canvas, Saharsh is excited to build a modern operating system that equips primary care providers to deliver evidence-based care efficiently. Since studying public health at Johns Hopkins, he has hoped to restore the value of preventive care and longitudinal outcomes in our healthcare system. He believes the most effective way to influence systemic change is through understanding and acting based on the motivations of the various stakeholders in the healthcare industry. Prior to Canvas, Saharsh spent time exploring innovation at the bench (biotech public equities), the bedside (UCSF pediatrics residency), and building (VC, home health startup, Grand Rounds). Saharsh lives in San Francisco, and enjoys getting outdoors (basketball, skiing) as a set up to indulge in the plethora of food throughout the Bay Area.
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Guided by the greatest.
We’re fortunate for the guidance of the industry’s top thought leaders and investors.
Advisors & Board Members
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Dr. Jacob Reider
Advisor
Dr. Reider is CEO of Alliance for Better Health, a value-based care incubator, and was formerly Deputy National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
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Scott Reid
Advisor
Scott is Chairman of Alignment Healthcare North Carolina, a mission-based Medicare Advantage insurance company, and a Senior Partner at EthosOne Healthcare Advisors.
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Bryan Sivak
Board Member
Bryan is Managing Director at KP Ventures and VP of Medicaid Transformation at Kaiser Permanente, and was formerly CTO of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
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Jeff Butler
Board Member
Jeff is the founder of Privia Health, one of the nation’s largest tech-enabled physician companies. He now serves on Privia's board, and invests in and advises healthcare startups.
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Clinical Advisors
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Andrew Nadler, M.D.
Internal Medicine
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Ninad Athale, M.D.
Family Medicine
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Meenesh Bhimani, M.D.
Emergency Medicine
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Bruce Block, M.D.
Pediatrics
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Steve Magee, M.D.
Family Medicine
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Erik McDonald, M.D.
Orthopedic Surgery
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Anna Hines, FNP
Family Nurse Practitioner
Our Investors
We’re proud to be backed by forward-thinking investors.
Canvas narrows the differential
between anxiety and excitement.
Making the switch to a new EMR feels daunting, but we make it easier.
Learn MoreCharting the
Way Forward.
Rediscover your calling with the first human-centered EMR that unites the art and science of medicine.
Don’t Jump.
Leap.
We would be delighted to show you a demo, put you in touch with current customers, provide counsel on making the switch, and get you started with access to Canvas.
Reach out with any questions, anytime.
Schedule your 30-minute video demo to:
- See Canvas in action with realistic clinical scenarios.
- Meet Canvas CEO Andrew Hines or CMO Dr. Michael Zimmerman.
- Discuss whether Canvas is a good fit for your practice.
- Understand our switching process and timelines.
- Learn about pricing.
Simply pick a time to receive a Calendar invite and conference link. Canvas demos are powered by Zoom (no download required) and work best on laptop or tablet.
We look forward to learning about your practice and showing you what we’ve built.
Andrew & Dr. Zimmerman