McMaster University Creates Open Source eHealth Records System

[Randy Jonasz]

On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 2:45 PM, Lennart Sorensen <
lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org> wrote:

> On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 01:59:33PM -0400, Randy Jonasz wrote:
> > I am a developer at McMaster for the EMR OSCAR.  I'm not sure where the
> > negativity is coming from, but as to be expected, I disagree.  McMaster
> uses
> > OSCAR at all 3 of their clinics with well over 30 000 patients' records.
>  I
> > personally provide support for another 7 clinics which use OSCAR.  We
> have a
> > strong user base in BC as well as McGill University in Quebec..  We are
> just
> > now putting together more accurate numbers of who is using OSCAR.
> >
> > With ubuntu, installing OSCAR for a technically inclined person is
> > painless.  Check out http://indivica.com/?page_id=40 for installation
> > instructions.  We also have documentation on how to use the program on
> > http://www.oscarcanada.org .
> >
> > I have had great satisfaction seeing OSCAR used in many settings; from
> > homeless shelters to teaching clinics, to family physician practices.  It
> > runs on minimal hardware with very good performance.  Check it out.  It's
> a
> > great alternative to a billion dollar non solution.
>
> Good grief...  mysql for one half of the system, postgres for the other
> half, java here, python there.  And pages and pages of instructions
> to set it up.  If it's that easy why didn't someone just make a ubuntu
> package for it?  Looks like 3/4 of it could be scripted in the .postinst
> anyhow.  And cvs checkouts?  Don't they have actual releases?  Nevermind
> how bad cvs is at tracking changes.
>

It's true the install could be simplified.  Currently we try to make it so
an interested physician can set it up herself.  But the bottom line is to
hire a tech to do it it if you don't know how.

The python is being phased out as it was used only to manage Health Canada's
drug database dump.  This was also being stored in postgreSQL which I
believe a co-worker was changing to use MySQL.

We use sourceforge as our code repository so yes we have used cvs
successfully for years.

Cheers,

Randy

>
> --
> Len Sorensen
> --
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-- 
Oscar Developer
McMaster University
175 Longwood Road South, Suite 201A
Hamilton ON  L8P 0A1
905 525 9140 x27735
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