OSCAR EMR Overview

OSCAR is a robust, award winning, standards-based, electronic medical records system. Developed by McMaster University and supported by large institutional investors such as the City of Toronto, OSCAR was the first EMR to successfully pass OntarioMD’s CMS Specification v2.0 and subsequently, CMS Specification v3.0.

OSCAR is also one of only sixteen vendors eligible for up to $27,000 in per-physician funding for the implementation of an EMR system. Funding is made available through the EMR Adoption Program established by the Ontario Medical Association and the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.

Advantages of OSCAR

• Proven. OSCAR has been in existence since 2001 and is being used by more than 1,000 clinicians and large institutions across BC, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and PEI. Adoption rates have been increasing by over 75% annually. Large institutions using OSCAR include the City of Toronto and The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Montreal. The City of Toronto uses OSCAR for a large case management, bed management, and program / facility management system. The Queen Elizabeth, an urgent care facility, has 14 physicians and over 20,000 patients under management in its OSCAR database.
• Secure. OSCAR's bank-level encryption, robust permissioning system and audit trails enable a clinic to control access to sensitive areas of a patient chart and see exactly who made a given change to the system. Combined with OSCAR's to-the-minute offsite backups, clinics never have to worry about the security or availability or their data again.
• Customizable. OSCAR can be fully customized to meet the requirements and workflow of a given medical facility.  OSCAR source code is freely available for download and the system has been architected to be customized by institutions wanting to tailor it to their environment. Additionally, the OSCAR model puts the medical practitioner, not the EMR vendor, in full control of which customizations get performed and allows customizations to be performed at cost-effective rates when compared with the development rates charged by commercial EMR vendors.
• Lowest total cost of ownership. OSCAR is made available free of charge and is distributed under the GNU General Public License. This means that annual licensing fees for OSCAR cost $0, regardless of the number of physicians and users accessing the system. The hardware and software requirements for the OSCAR server and client workstations are also very reasonable, with most physicians able to get up and running with the purchase of a single pre-built OSCAR server.

All the Advantages, No Vendor Lock-in

No vendor lock-in. OSCAR allows medical facilities to maintain 100% control over the source code and data for their system. This breaks with the traditional proprietary-system model where third-party vendors control the source code for the system, placing clinics in a position of significant disadvantage in terms of price, customization, etc. once the system has been implemented.

Why Choose Trimara for Your OSCAR EMR Needs

• Full Customization for Your Environment. Our development staff can completely customize Oscar to meet the needs of the workflow and environment at your medical facility. Many of our clients establish annual service contracts that provide for all of their customization costs and ongoing modifications under one umbrella price so that they know exactly what they'll be paying.
• Affordable Umbrella Service Contracts. Our service contracts provide unlimited technical support, after-hours service for critical issues and ongoing customizations and modifications as required. You pay one fixed annual fee - no surprises and no gimmicks. If it's broken we're there for you 24 x 7, no questions asked.
• Proprietary Trimara-Only Enhancements. Our development staff have created a number of Trimara-only enhancements for Oscar which we make available to our clients. We’re also always on the lookout for more enhancements to help streamline our clients' daily activity in Oscar.
  • Automated Off-Site Backups. Your Oscar data is automatically backed up to a secure offsite location on a daily basis – never worry about losing your data again.
  • Automated Patient Reminders. Automatically remind your patients of upcoming appointments and confirm if they will be attending or not. This greatly reduces the amount of time required to call and remind patients of upcoming appointments.
  • Handwritten Progress Notes. Would you prefer to hand write your progress notes rather than type? No problem at all. Our developers have added the ability to capture handwritten progress notes using your tablet PC, iPad or other handwriting device.
  • New Documents Inbox. Similar to the Electronic Labs Inbox, the New Documents Inbox shows any new documents that have been added to your patient records.
  • Fully Customizable Encounter Screen. Move sections around, add generic notes sections and create sections linked to specific documents types – these are just a few of the things that you can do with our customized Encounter screen.
  • (coming soon) Automated OHIP submissions. No more messing around with HyperTerminal or some other terminal program to submit your billings to OHIP - our proprietary technology automatically performs these tasks for you in the background.

Try Before You Buy

Want to try OSCAR to see if it's right for your environment? No problem, we offer OSCAR demonstration systems free of charge to medical facilities interested in testing OSCAR before deciding if it's the right EMR for them. We also offer personalized walkthroughs so you can see exactly what OSCAR can do for your practice. Contact us today to get a free demonstration system for your office.