OSCAR McMaster

Open Source Clinical Application and Resource and McMaster (OSCAR McMaster) is an open source browser-based EMR system developed by the Department of Family Medicine at McMaster University in 2001. It is currently used in Canadian health centers and consists of five applications in its suite: 'OSCAR EMR', 'MyDrugRef', 'OSCAR CAISI', 'MyOSCAR', and 'OSCAR Resource'. Its goal is to "offer a "royalty free" set of Clinic Applications and Clinic Resources for use by health care providers and clinics in Canada and everywhere" [1].

OSCAR has its roots in the development of a DOS-based program, MUFFIN (McGill University Family Folder Information Network) created in 1988 by Dr. David Chan. MUFFIN was designed with the intent to provide a low-cost, problem-oriented, computerized medical record system to primary care clinics. Dr. Chan later went on to enlist a programming team to develop OSCAR [8].

As of October 31st 2014, OSCAR EMR has captured 18.3% of the EMR market share among funded EMR vendors in Canada [2]. As of July 2014, however, OSCAR has captured 22.6% of the local server EMR segment in Ontario, just behind the first placed EMR (23.2%) in that space [2].

OSCAR is not only used in many Canadian clinics, it has been implemented within a number of Canadian medical schools such as McGill, Queens, UBC and McMaster. OSCAR is also in use in Argentina, Ecuador, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Jamaica [9].

Applications

OSCAR EMR - Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system [3]
MyDrugRef - facilitates knowledge transfer of perscription drug information amongst health professionals [4]
OSCAR CAISI - Case and program management system to share patient information [5]
MyOSCAR - Portal that enables patients to access and share medical records [6]
OSCAR Resource - Bookmarking database for medical resources [7]