EyecareX Joins the Digital Health and Discovery Platform (DHDP) Network
EyecareX has officially joined the Digital Health and Discovery Platform (DHDP), a pan-Canadian network of clinicians, researchers, industry partners, and government agencies working together to advance AI-driven health research. Membership places EyecareX alongside a national community of Canadian digital health companies collaborating on secure, cloud-based health data infrastructure.
DHDP is led by the Terry Fox Research Institute (TFRI), backed by a $49 million commitment from the Government of Canada, and built to accelerate the development and commercialization of AI and precision medicine tools across the country.
What the DHDP is
The Digital Health and Discovery Platform connects Canadian health tech companies, researchers, and clinicians on a shared, federated infrastructure for health data discovery and AI development. The platform's Digital Health Innovation Fund has already supported dozens of Canadian SME collaborations exploring precision medicine, machine learning, and health data analysis, with a particular focus on advancing research that improves patient outcomes.
For a healthtech company built in Canada, for Canadian clinics, DHDP membership is a natural extension of EyecareX's existing commitment to Canadian data residency and Health Canada compliance.
Why this matters for EyecareX and Canadian optometry
EyecareX was founded on the belief that optometry practice management software should be built specifically for how Canadian clinics operate, not adapted from a U.S. platform after the fact. Joining DHDP connects EyecareX to a wider ecosystem of Canadian AI and digital health innovation, alongside academic institutions, hospital networks, and health tech companies working on similar problems: how to responsibly apply AI to clinical workflows while keeping patient data secure and under Canadian jurisdiction.
This complements work already underway across the platform, including:
AI-driven pre-testing and ambient charting, built to reduce the roughly 70% of the day optometrists spend on administration rather than patient care (see what optometry practice management software should actually do)
Provincial billing integrations across BC, Alberta, and Ontario
Health Canada clearance and PIPEDA/HIPAA compliance, with patient data hosted entirely in Canada
As Founder and CEO Justin Asgarpour, a practicing optometrist, put it:
We built EyecareX in Canada, for Canadian clinics, with patient data that never leaves the country. Joining DHDP puts us alongside the researchers and institutions doing that same work at a national level. It's the right community for a company that's serious about what responsible AI in healthcare actually looks like.
What's next
DHDP membership opens the door to potential collaboration on federated learning research, funding opportunities through the Digital Health Innovation Fund, and connections across Canada's broader digital health and precision medicine community. EyecareX will continue to share updates as these collaborations develop, alongside other recent milestones including graduating from the Creative Destruction Lab and joining the Google for Startups Accelerator: Canada.
To see how EyecareX's AI-native platform is already helping Canadian optometry clinics run more efficiently, book a demo or read more about why Canadian clinics are moving to AI-native practice management software.