Patient Chart Summary Custom Section

Last updated: 5 Oct 2026

The PatientChartSummaryCustomSection effect allows plugin developers to supply the content for a custom section in the patient chart summary. It is returned by a PatientChartSummaryCustomSectionHandler in response to a request for the section’s content.

Content can be provided as an inline HTML string or as a URL to a hosted page. An icon must always be supplied; it is shown in the chart summary header when the section is collapsed.

Build a PatientChartSummaryCustomSection with the attributes you want to set, then return its apply() from your handler.

Methods #

apply() → Effect #

Supplies the section’s content.

• Exactly one of content or url is required.
• Exactly one of icon or icon_url is required.

Providing both fields in a pair, or neither, raises a ValidationError.

Attributes #

Attribute	Type	Description	Required
content	str | None	Inline HTML content to render in the section. Mutually exclusive with url.	Exactly one of content or url
url	str | None	URL of the page to load in the section iframe. Mutually exclusive with content.	Exactly one of content or url
icon	str | None	Text or emoji displayed as the section icon when collapsed. Mutually exclusive with icon_url.	Exactly one of icon or icon_url
icon_url	str | None	URL of an image to use as the section icon when collapsed. Mutually exclusive with icon.	Exactly one of icon or icon_url

Examples #

Inline HTML content #

Return a rendered HTML template as the section content.

from canvas_sdk.effects import Effect
from canvas_sdk.effects.patient_chart_summary_custom_section import PatientChartSummaryCustomSection
from canvas_sdk.handlers.patient_chart_summary_custom_section_handler import PatientChartSummaryCustomSectionHandler
from canvas_sdk.templates import render_to_string


class MySectionHandler(PatientChartSummaryCustomSectionHandler):
    SECTION_KEY = "my_section"

    def handle(self) -> list[Effect]:
        return [
            PatientChartSummaryCustomSection(
                content=render_to_string("templates/my_section.html"),
                icon="📋",
            ).apply()
        ]

URL-based content #

Load the section content from a hosted endpoint. This is useful when the section is a standalone page served by a Simple API handler.

from canvas_sdk.effects import Effect
from canvas_sdk.effects.patient_chart_summary_custom_section import PatientChartSummaryCustomSection
from canvas_sdk.handlers.patient_chart_summary_custom_section_handler import PatientChartSummaryCustomSectionHandler


class MySectionHandler(PatientChartSummaryCustomSectionHandler):
    SECTION_KEY = "my_section"

    def handle(self) -> list[Effect]:
        return [
            PatientChartSummaryCustomSection(
                url="/plugin-io/api/my_plugin/my-section",
                icon_url="/plugin-io/api/my_plugin/icon.png",
            ).apply()
        ]

Passing data to the template #

Use render_to_string with a context dictionary to inject dynamic data into the HTML template.

from canvas_sdk.effects import Effect
from canvas_sdk.effects.patient_chart_summary_custom_section import PatientChartSummaryCustomSection
from canvas_sdk.handlers.patient_chart_summary_custom_section_handler import PatientChartSummaryCustomSectionHandler
from canvas_sdk.templates import render_to_string
from canvas_sdk.v1.data.patient import Patient


class MySectionHandler(PatientChartSummaryCustomSectionHandler):
    SECTION_KEY = "my_section"

    def handle(self) -> list[Effect]:
        patient = Patient.objects.get(id=self.target)

        return [
            PatientChartSummaryCustomSection(
                content=render_to_string(
                    "templates/my_section.html",
                    {"patient_name": patient.first_name},
                ),
                icon="📋",
            ).apply()
        ]