HistoryOfPresentIllness

Last updated: 24 Aug 2026

Introduction #

The HistoryOfPresentIllness model represents a History of Present Illness (HPI) recorded on a Note, and is always associated with a Note and a Patient. It is the data model behind the hpi command.

Basic usage #

To get an HPI by identifier, use the get method on the HistoryOfPresentIllness model manager:

from canvas_sdk.v1.data.history_present_illness import HistoryOfPresentIllness

hpi = HistoryOfPresentIllness.objects.get(id="b80b1cdc-2e6a-4aca-90cc-ebc02e683f35")

If you have a patient object, or note object, the histories of present illness for a patient or note can be accessed with the histories_of_present_illness attribute on a Patient or Note object:

from canvas_sdk.v1.data.patient import Patient
from canvas_sdk.v1.data.note import Note

patient = Patient.objects.get(id="1eed3ea2a8d546a1b681a2a45de1d790")
histories = patient.histories_of_present_illness.all()

note = Note.objects.get(id="89992c23-c298-4118-864a-26cb3e1ae822")
histories = note.histories_of_present_illness.all()

Reading the narrative #

The HPI text is stored as a structured document in narrative_json. The read-only narrative property renders it as plain text, so that is the field to read:

from canvas_sdk.v1.data.history_present_illness import HistoryOfPresentIllness

hpi = HistoryOfPresentIllness.objects.get(id="b80b1cdc-2e6a-4aca-90cc-ebc02e683f35")
text = hpi.narrative

Filtering #

Histories of present illness can be filtered by any column on the model. Note that narrative is a Python property rather than a column, so it cannot be used in filter() — filter on narrative_json instead.

Committed histories of present illness #

The committed method returns records that have been committed and not entered in error:

from canvas_sdk.v1.data.history_present_illness import HistoryOfPresentIllness

committed_histories = HistoryOfPresentIllness.objects.committed()

Attributes #