Travelling across borders already requires plenty of preparation. Passports, luggage, documentation, health insurance and more must be organized to help make the trip as stress-free as possible.
Another important part of travel preparation is electronic health record (EHR) access. Whether you have a clean bill of health, you’re managing a chronic illness or you’re recovering from an injury, it’s important to be able to access your health records in the event of an unforeseen medical event.
Streamlined access to your EHR can give you a major advantage while travelling. You can quickly share your important health information, even with a new provider in a clinic or hospital you’ve never been to before. This reduces the stress of needing unexpected care, as you can easily provide your past and current health history, keeping your new care team up to date with your needs.
This article highlights the importance of EHR access for Canadian travellers, explaining how they can view their records online and how tools like PocketHealth enable them to easily access and organize their medical imaging records, as well as upload other health records from a single secure platform.
Being prepared with access to your EHR can help offset some of the stress that comes with travelling. If health emergencies, medication changes or follow-up care are needed with a new provider, patients are better prepared to handle these situations with their records at their fingertips.
Having your health data available is beneficial in several ways. According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), patients with access to their EHRs are 34% more likely to avoid emergency department visits and 45% less likely to need in-person health visits.
When you’re travelling, your EHR is especially important. It provides peace of mind and helps you prepare for unexpected needs if you suddenly require care. This could be something as serious as an emergency room visit or as routine as needing a prescription refill while away from home. Whatever the situation, you’ll have the information you need.
Here are some specific ways patient access to health data can prepare travellers:
Legally, Canadian patients have the right to obtain their health information from medical providers. Before you prepare to travel, it can be helpful to understand how access to this patient data works in Canada. The following sections provide a general overview of how your personal health information is stored and maintained.
EHRs are digital versions of your patient data and medical history that can be securely accessed by multiple health care providers and systems. They are designed to be easily shared across facilities and practitioners and serve as a unified, comprehensive version of your medical records.
Electronic medical records, or EMRs, are often confused with EHRs. While both consist of digitized health data, EMRs are not meant to be widely accessible. They are usually created and managed by a single medical organization, like a hospital or clinic, and shared only upon request as needed, for example, when a physician issues a referral to a specialist. EMRs are often fragmented and incomplete.
Because EHRs are generally more comprehensive than EMRs, they tend to be more useful for both patients and health authorities, providing a more complete picture. Typical information included in an EHR may include medication lists and prescriptions, imaging and treatment histories, test results, diagnoses and even previous immunizations, which is particularly useful when travelling abroad.
If you know in advance that you’ll be travelling, you can take the opportunity to access your records before you leave. This allows plenty of time to navigate challenges and contact your health records custodian if needed. Overall, the general steps to obtain your records are similar, regardless of which EHR system your provider uses. Here are some general steps to follow:
Most of the time, Canadians can view their records while travelling as long as they have internet access and the proper authentication for logging into their patient portal. Some users may encounter access limitations, so it is helpful to prepare for this in advance.
One common example is two-factor authentication using texts sent to your Canadian cell phone. If your cell carrier doesn’t support SMS in that region, or if there are other reasons you can’t receive texts on your phone, then you will be unable to log in. Consider setting up login preferences to send the authentication to your email or a similar alternative instead.
Another step to consider is making backups of your electronic health information and using different formats. For example, you can have paper copies or store your records on a USB or other device, in addition to maintaining electronic access. This gives you multiple ways to share information with health authorities while travelling.
If you have the option to use a single platform for all your health records, this is ideal. It requires only one login and keeps all your essential data in one location, reducing the stress of navigating multiple portals, especially in the event of an emergency.
Now that you know tips for accessing your medical records, it can also be useful to focus on health preparations for international travel, such as:
PocketHealth makes it simple to keep your essential health information organized in one place. All of your medical imaging and reports are permanently stored, securely accessible online and easily shareable with providers abroad. You can also upload other records, such as lab results and immunizations, providing a single, reliable source of truth about your health.
Pockethealth bridges the gap between scattered patient portals and disjointed EHR systems, so you have all your essential health information at your fingertips, wherever you are. It’s one small step that can make a big difference when travelling—helping you feel prepared, confident and ready for whatever adventure comes next.
Here are some frequently asked questions regarding accessing personal health information from Canada.
Most EHR systems used by hospitals and other care facilities are only accessible to medical providers, not patients. However, some of these systems have patient-facing portals that allow patients to access certain records, although they may sometimes be missing data, such as medical images.
That said, even widely used EHR systems and patient portals can be fragmented or incomplete, especially if the patient was seen at facilities outside of their region or province. Patients travelling abroad may want to ensure they have a complete record from all applicable systems before departing.
In many cases, yes, you can access your online health information both in and outside of Canada, as long as your provider has granted you permission. Most providers offer some kind of patient portal that allows patients to view their medical history and health data.
Many clinics and facilities automatically grant access once you have authorization and sign-in permissions. However, some clinics may require you to request access first. If you know you will be travelling, consider checking what permissions you currently have for your medical records.
If you have family members travelling with you for whom you are responsible, it is also important to review their record permissions. If they are legally obligated to provide authorization for you to view their health information, such as with elderly parents, this should be arranged in advance to avoid delays in obtaining their records. This permission often requires official written consent, which may take time to be processed by their health information custodian, so it is important to begin the preparations sooner rather than later.
The specific health data included in your EHR will vary depending on factors such as the types of providers you have seen and the health information systems they use. Overall, most EHRs tend to include information such as:
Published: November 17, 2025
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