| Developer(s) | McMaster University |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 9_12 / 2009-12-01 |
| Preview release | 10_12 / 2010-12-01 |
| Operating system | Cross-platform |
| Type | Medical practice management software |
| License | GPL |
| Website | www.oscarmcmaster.org/ |
OSCAR McMaster is a web-based electronic medical record (EMR) system initially developed for academic primary care clinics. It has grown into a comprehensive EMR and billing system used by many doctor's offices and private medical clinics in Canada and other parts of the world. The name is derived from where it was created and an acronym; OSCAR stands for Open Source Clinical Application and Resource and McMaster refers to McMaster University, where it was developed. It enables the delivery of evidence resources at the point of care.
On December 1, 2005, the project announced that OSCAR had been certified by OntarioMD under the Physician IT Program. Notably, OSCAR is the only open source Clinical Management System (CMS) product (out of a list of 19 certified products from 15 vendors) to meet/exceed the requirements that ensure the product supports defined standards for clinical and practice management software. Version 9.06 is the only one qualified for the OntarioMD EMR funding.
Contents |
OSCAR has many features which computerize and coordinate the important functions of a medical clinic.
oscarEncounter is the patient's electronic medical record. It contains all of the patient's medical information, including patient history, progress notes, forms and documents.
oscarRx is the OSCAR prescription program, which allows you to create electronic prescriptions, save personalized prescription information, and stay informed about possible drug interactions and allergy conflicts for each patient. Prescription printing on label printers is supported, as are "wet" signatures placed on electronic prescriptions using external signature pads.
oscarBilling is an integrated billing module that supports automated billing submission in the provinces of ON and BC.
oscarDocument, a system for attaching any type of file to a patient's chart.
CAISI, an award-winning case management, bed management and program facility management system used by several agencies in Toronto, Hamilton and Ottawa. The system is specifically designed to share relevant patient information among providers, while maintaining the highest levels of patient privacy.
OSCAR is primarily written in JavaServer Pages (JSP) and served via the Apache Tomcat servlet container. The backend storage is a MySQL database, and the interface layer between Java and MySQL is Hibernate. Most installations are performed on a Linux server. OSCAR is installed on a different machine than the one it is used on, in a server-client configuration.
Being an open source project, much of the support for OSCAR is obtained from the community, through mailing lists. The most active mailing list is oscarmcmaster-bc-users, with advanced topics happening in oscar-advanced-users.
Commercial support is also offered by office OSCAR Service Providers, or OSPs. Certain OSPs employ full-time development staff to maintain the code and to include proprietary features for their clients.