2017: Small Beginnings

Ava began in a place many great ideas do: a clinic under pressure.

In 2017, Dr. Matt Henschke and Dr. Mike Forseth were co-founders of Britannia Medical Clinic in Calgary. Like many physicians, they were tired of EMRs that made their work harder, not easier. So, instead of complaining, they built their own.

The first version of Ava was deeply pragmatic. It wasn’t polished, but it worked. Designed by clinicians who understood the grind of practice, it streamlined charting, brought clarity to the daily rush, and let them focus more on care and less on clicks.

2019: The Moment Things Changed

The first clinic outside of Britannia to use Ava was The Mustard Seed, a health and human services non-profit in Alberta. There was no formal migration—Dr. Forseth simply went down himself, trained the team, and got them running. That hands-on approach set the tone for Ava’s culture.

Then something unexpected happened. One of the physicians at the Mustard Seed wrote a glowing feature in the Alberta Medical Association (AMA) magazine. That article sparked a ripple effect. Clinics like Care@Sagehill, Charles Clark Medical Clinic, PurposeMed, and Wildrose began reaching out. Ava wasn’t being sold—it was being sought by clinics that needed a modern solution to their workflow.

"Whoever created Ava knew what needed to be done."

— Tracy Peterson, MOA, Trinity Rose Medical​

2020: The Hard Lessons of Scale

In early 2020, Ava began its first official data migrations. Matt did most of this work on his own. It was ambitious. Months of development led to a database transfer attempt that ultimately had to be scrapped and replaced. It was hard work, but the team learned. They built internal tooling, refined the process, and committed to becoming the best in the business at getting clinics off legacy systems.

Over the next year, Ava completed some of its most technically challenging migrations:

• Care@Sage Hill (Med Access)
• Fort MacLeod (Wolf)
• Charles Clark (PS Suite)

This was the beginning of what is now one of Ava’s defining capabilities: clean and complete migrations.

"The transition from our old EMR system to Ava was easy. The Ava team was consistently prompt, reliable, and thorough."

— The View Medical​

2021: A Portal Opens, and So Does Hiring

This year marked the launch of Ava Connect, a patient portal that gave people direct, secure access to lab results, appointments, messages, and more. This feature had always been central to the vision for Ava, creating a network where healthcare between doctors and patients could be digitally coordinated.

The team also started to grow—seven new team members joined, bringing needed structure to implementation, development, and support. Ava was lucky to bring Evan Hu and Alto Sante on board, which strengthened Ava’s organizational growth and helped build strong culture and fair practices into the fabric of the company.

“All features of Ava Connect are extremely user-friendly… a wonderful time-saving feature that both staff and patients benefit from.”

— Brenda O., Clinic Manager, Fairview Medical​

2022: Building for the Future

Ava wasn’t just gaining clinics—it was investing in people. Five new team members joined who stepped into their roles with the same heart that built Ava in the first place. New PMs, developers, and support leads helped bring consistency to migrations, onboarding, and product development.

This was also the year Ava started supporting clinic groups and clinic pods, allowing for seamless cross-location records and internal team filtering—two features deeply informed by on-the-ground clinic feedback. The core of these features were built for Synergy Medical Clinic, Ava’s largest clinic at the time, representing a complex location with 6 units and over 35 physicians.

2023: Going West

In 2023, Ava expanded beyond Alberta, launching in British Columbia. It was a major technical and organizational milestone:

• Integration with Excelleris Labs (February)
• Integration with Teleplan Billing (March)
• 175 clinics live across Alberta

Behind the scenes, Ava also rolled out:

• Issue Manager, a new internal QA tool replacing clunky spreadsheets
• A modern migration framework that made importing from MOIS, Juno, and CHR significantly faster

And the team? It grew by 14 people, all focused on supporting that scale with care.

“Yes, I’m familiar with Ava. It’s probably the best EMR in the business.”

— Locum, Athabasca Medical Clinic​

2024: Intelligence, Delivered

This was the year Ava defined its voice.

• The Ava Intelligence Suite launched: predictive insights, automated task flows, and an upgraded Ava Scribe tool that changed how doctors interact with the EMR.
• Ava became ISO 27001 certified, a major milestone confirming its security and data protection standards met the highest global benchmarks​.
• Internally, Ava introduced:
  • A new two-day training model
  • A five-week stabilization process
  • A centralized feature request system
  • A dedicated migration team using the Transformers & Loaders framework, dramatically speeding up new clinic setups

Fourteen new team members joined in 2023. Six more arrived in 2024.

2025: A National Standard Emerges

This year, Ava integrated with PrescribeIT, finalizing its national prescribing capability. It introduced Tracked Prescription Messaging, enhanced Single Sign-On, and brought real-time data streaming to life at Harrison Clinic using AWS.

It also launched its most complex migrations yet—from PS Suite, Juno, and Accuro—into full Ava setups, now serving over 1,300 providers across +300 clinics, and managing more than 5 million patient charts​.

In 2025, Ava is 39 people strong.

And yet, it still feels personal.

“I LOVE Ava.”

— Dr. Natalie Ward, Southport Family Practice

The Future, On Purpose

Ava was never just about software. It’s about returning to the core of care: clarity, connection, and the time to focus on patients.

From its beginnings at Britannia to its national footprint today, Ava has redefined what a modern EMR can be—not cold or clinical, but visionary and human.

This is just the beginning.