Patient Timeline

Last updated: 16 Feb 2026

The Canvas SDK allows you to configure a patient’s timeline, such as hiding specific note types from view.

Excluding Note Types #

To exclude note types from a patient’s timeline, import the PatientTimelineEffect class and create an instance of it. This effect is triggered in response to the PATIENT_TIMELINE__GET_CONFIGURATION event, which fires when a patient’s timeline is loaded.

Attributes #

Attribute		Type	Description
excluded_note_types	required	list[str]	A list of NoteType.unique_identifier values (UUIDs) to exclude from the patient’s timeline.

Example Usage #

The excluded_note_types list must contain unique_identifier values from the NoteType model. Each NoteType has a unique_identifier (UUID) that you can look up by querying the model:

from canvas_sdk.v1.data.note import NoteType

# Find the unique_identifier for a note type by name
note_type = NoteType.objects.get(name="Office visit")
note_type.unique_identifier  # e.g. UUID("a3b9c1d2-...")

# Or list all note types with their unique_identifiers
for nt in NoteType.objects.all():
    print(f"{nt.name}: {nt.unique_identifier}")

Then use those unique_identifier values in the effect:

from canvas_sdk.effects.patient.timeline import PatientTimelineEffect
from canvas_sdk.events import EventType
from canvas_sdk.handlers.base import BaseHandler
from canvas_sdk.v1.data.note import NoteType


class Protocol(BaseHandler):
    RESPONDS_TO = [EventType.Name(EventType.PATIENT_TIMELINE__GET_CONFIGURATION)]

    def compute(self):
        # Use unique_identifier
        office_visit = NoteType.objects.get(name="Office visit", is_active=True)
        lab_visit = NoteType.objects.get(name="Lab visit", is_active=True)

        effect = PatientTimelineEffect(
            excluded_note_types=[
                str(office_visit.unique_identifier),
                str(lab_visit.unique_identifier),
            ]
        )

        return [effect.apply()]

Behavior #

📘 Chart Review notes cannot be excluded

Even if a CHART_REVIEW note type is included in the excluded_note_types list, it will always be shown on the timeline. The system automatically removes it from any exclusion list.

• Permalink access: If a user tries to directly access a note whose type has been excluded, they will receive a permission error.
• Multiple plugins: If multiple plugins respond to the PATIENT_TIMELINE__GET_CONFIGURATION event, the excluded note types from all responses are combined.

Validation #

• All provided UUIDs must correspond to existing note types in the system. If a note type UUID does not exist, a ValidationError will be raised with a message indicating which note type was not found.
• Values that are not valid UUIDs will also raise a ValidationError.