How it works
Methodology
How Open Health Tourism turns an official document into a conservative, source-linked result — recording existence and state, never quality.
Protocol sequence · source to result
Runs on a schedule; reprocessed only when the source hash / ETag / Last-Modified changes. Raw source values (name, province, facility type, address, phone) are preserved exactly as printed.
Result statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| LISTED_CURRENT | A high-confidence matched record exists in the current official snapshot. |
| POSSIBLE_MATCH | A plausible record exists, but identity evidence is incomplete. |
| AMBIGUOUS_MATCH | More than one plausible official record exists. |
| NOT_FOUND_CURRENT | No sufficiently strong match was found in the current snapshot. |
| HISTORICALLY_LISTED | A match existed in a previous snapshot but not the current one. |
| REMOVED_FROM_CURRENT_SOURCE | A previously observed record disappeared from the current source. This does not mean “revoked” unless the authority states that. |
| SOURCE_UNAVAILABLE | The current official source could not be retrieved or validated. |
| SOURCE_CHANGED_UNPARSED | The source changed structurally and could not be parsed safely. |
| COVERAGE_UNAVAILABLE | The jurisdiction or category has no legally usable public source. |
| MANUAL_REVIEW | Automated processing cannot issue a reliable result. |
VALID, INVALID, ACTIVE_CERTIFICATE and REVOKED are never used unless the official source explicitly publishes those states.
Confidence is about identity, not authorization
Match confidence describes how strongly a query matches an official record — it is separate from authorization quality.
- HIGH exact/near-exact official name, same province, and a corroborating phone or address. Only HIGH auto-produces
LISTED_CURRENT. - MEDIUM name + province, or an alias/brand match with one corroborating identifier. Produces
POSSIBLE_MATCH. - LOW name similarity only. Remains a search candidate and is never shown as authorized.
- NONE no plausible candidate.
Limitations
A no-match is not proof that an organization is unauthorized. Commercial and licensed names may differ, records change between snapshots, and a source may be incomplete or temporarily unavailable. A record disappearing from a list is reported as REMOVED_FROM_CURRENT_SOURCE, never as a “revocation”, unless the authority states so.
The official source does not publish certificate numbers, issue/expiry dates, suspension or revocation status, legal entity numbers, websites or coordinates. Open Health Tourism does not invent those fields.