OSCAR

See the following -

Continuing shake up and evolution of the EMR marketplace

Pamela Lewis Dolan | American Medical News | August 6, 2012

The number of practices looking for replacement EHRs has grown, although most small practices are adopting systems for the first time, according to a new survey. Read More »

Debut & Installation of myOSCAR PHR System

Press Release | WSJ MarketWatch | May 16, 2013

Cloud Practice recently installed the myOSCAR personal health record (PHR) system at the Amari Clinic, the first of several myOSCAR set ups by Cloud Practice for medical offices throughout the region. Read More »

EHR Systems & Cost Transparency in the Healthcare Industry

Cost transparency is obviously a big issue in the healthcare industry. Whether it’s the amazing variation in costs hospitals charge patients for similar medical procedures, or the costs associated with acquiring and implementing an Electronic Health Record (EHR) system for a hospital - Why are all these costs often carefully hidden?  Is there something special about the healthcare industry that says – "Let's not talk about how much things really cost." Apparently, many industry leaders must feel that hospitals boards and patients have no need to know this information. Read More »

International Society Calls for Healthcare Projects to Collaborate using Open Source

Software projects in health care would benefit from increased collaboration, using open source, exchanging know-how and open documentation, say experts from IsfTeH, International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth. “Most important is the sharing of best practices, but reusing common software components also reduces costs”, the experts say. “There are excellent tools and projects in the domain of Free/Libre Open Source Software for Health Care”, the experts say, “but their impact so far is limited. That would change if they banded together to form an ecosystem.”

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Investing in Open Source Companies & Solutions is Smart Business

Who would really want to invest in companies that have embraced the 'open source' movement?... It turns out there just might be a lot of 21st century companies that have embraced open source, open access, open data, open standards, open architecture… and are overtaking or outperforming major companies that used to dominate in the last century..."Bill Gates, VCs Invest $35M In ResearchGate",  "Mirantis Fuels Open Source OpenStack with $10 Million Investment", "One day, three deals, $150 million in open source funding", "Open Source technology investment to increase significantly by 2018". Pay attention to these headlines from recent news articles related to investing in 'open source'.

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McMaster Gets $5.8 Million To Improve Electronic Health Records

Joanna Frketich | TheSpec.com | September 13, 2012

McMaster University is getting $5.8 million from the federal government to create a personal health record that will let patients take control of their information and communicate with doctors online — including making appointments. Read More »

My Updated 2013 List of 'Open Source' Electronic Health Record (EHR) Systems

I've been following and reporting on 'open source' electronic health record (EHR) and/or electronic medical record (EMR) systems over the past decade. In the late 1990's and early years of the 21st century, there were several hundred open source EHR/EMR projects that were initiated and posted on sites like SourceForge, GitHub, GForge, Freshmeat, etc. Read More »

MyOSCAR: An Open Source PHR System Being Used in Canada

It was announced today that patients of the Amari Medical Clinic and Integrated Health Centre in Surrey, British Columbia, have also gone live with MyOSCAR.  Patients can now have their most important and up-to-date test results, appointments, and healthcare stats integrated with their smart phone, laptop or tablet. Read More »

OHNews 2013 Readers Choice: 'Open Source' Health IT Systems

As we head towards the end of the year, the global 'open source' software movement continues to grow and strengthen, especially in the field of healthcare. Based on the number of hits by readers of Open Health News (OHNews) on links to our brief profiles of 'open source' Health IT systems, the following are their top choices of interest over the past year: Read More »

Open Source Health IT Solutions for Governments to Consider

Peter Groen | GovLoop | January 5, 2012

Healthcare is a major budget item for government at all levels. There are now many high quality, free and open source Health IT systems that community hospitals and clinics should consider using as an alternative to more expensive commercial systems. This could save state & local governments 'big' bucks...

Oscar, The Startup That's Trying To Shake Up Healthcare, Just Raised $80 Million

Jillian D'Onfro | Business Insider | May 14, 2014

Oscar, the company dead-set on shaking up the broken healthcare industry, just announced an $80 million fundraise, bringing its valuation to nearly $1 billion.  Oscar officially launched in New York City in January of this year, after founders Kevin Nazemi, Joshua Kushner, and Mario Schlosser decided that they wanted to use technology to create a better, more consumer-friendly health insurance company...

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OSCAR-CON 2014

Event Details
Type: 
Conference
Location: 
Vancouver General Hospital Vancouver, BC
Canada

The next OSCAR Canada Users Society (OCUS} Meeting is scheduled to be held in June 2014. Vancouver. This will be a 2 day users conference with updates on OSCAR, discussion of new features, and more. Details to be announced.
 

OSCAR-CON 2014

Event Details
Type: 
Conference
Location: 
Vancouver General Hospital Vancouver, BC
Canada

The next OSCAR Canada Users Society (OCUS} Meeting is scheduled to be held in June 2014. Vancouver. This will be a 2 day users conference with updates on OSCAR, discussion of new features, and more. Details to be announced.
 

Safety Net Providers find Benefits & Problems with Open Source

Anthony Brino | Government Health IT | July 12, 2013

Safety net providers have both succeeded and struggled with open source software, according a federally-funded study. Read More »

Thailand's 'open source' Hospital OS now in hundreds of facilities across Asia

Dr. Kongkiat Kespechara is the inaugural speaker for the Research Triangle Park's Global Vision Forum. An MD, software developer, healthcare IT visionary and agricultural pioneer, Dr. Kespechara promotes and uses the 'open source' Hospital OS software platform to enable small, rural hospitals around the world to provide improved health care services and make more effective use of the severely limited financial and human resources at their disposal.

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