Where are we? HERE WE ARE! Final Strech

We are starting to receive some pledges for helping to fund the last 100 or so hours of programming for the Alberta Billing and Lab module. This is becoming a life saver, because it is not cheap, and even OSCAR programmers need to eat more than just Ichiban.

The programmer, I am told, has not been coming up much for air lately - and she is a very talented (and I'm told good-looking) programmer. I hope to meet her one day (not because of her looks - I'm married to a devastatingly beautiful woman already).

More Physicians are contacting me about OSCAR and there seems to be a lot of genuine interest in OSCAR in Alberta. Within just 2-4 weeks, we should have finally an Alberta Billing and Lab module for OSCAR.

I have recently installed Netcare in my office. This is a wonderful thing that has made a real positive difference to patient care - and it saves me hours per week.

I'm normally happy to enthusiastically criticize the Provincial Government.....but I have to grudgingly agree - NETCARE IS BRILLIANT. Whoever was responsible for coming up with the idea, will probably save countless numbers of lives, countless suffering and countless Health Care Dollars. Whoever you are: Thank-you.

We will attempt to also build a Netcare connection to OSCAR, as this is a logical next step.

Many have asked me why I am not pursuing VCUR compliance to receive POSP funding from the AMA.

My answer is: what for?

POSP funding is a nightmare of paperwork that gives Physicians grey hair and high cholesterol....and the costs of OSCAR are so insignificant, that the hassle of obtaining POSP funding for it does not seem to be worth it to me. It will be interesting to see how this issue evolves....but we will perhaps go after VCUR compliance after these several things are done:

1) Alberta Billing and Lab Module Complete

2) Alberta Netcare interactivity module complete

3) OSCAR ISO certification complete (being worked on by fine folks)

4) OSCAR takes over most EMR installations in Alberta

Feel free to contact me at any time at:

Drjohnf@me.com

My Twitter is at:

@Drjohnf8

Billing/Lab module has a light at the end of the tunnel.....

Alas, we now have a light at the end of the tunnel with respect to Alberta's Billing and Lab module.

And no worries - we are keeping it totally "open source", which means that everyone will be able to have access to it.

This has been difficult and expensive. Anybody that would like to contribute funds towards this (to help alleviate the financial pressure on me) would be most welcomed! To be a wonderful, benevolent and altruistic spirit - please feel free to email me at:

drfernandes@me.com

if you'd like to be able to help me accelerate development with a little infusion of additional funding for this project.

Hopefully we'll be able to beta test by mid-October to late October. I fully intend that I will not see 2012 without a functioning Alberta billing and lab module for OSCAR.

I've started an OSCAR Alberta discussion newsgroup - much like the BC group, but it is intended for OSCAR Alberta specific concerns and discussion.

Anybody that is interested in this newsgroup is welcome to join up! There are not a lot of members yet, but perhaps more will join in time. Within the next few weeks, there will be a few clinics in Alberta that have adopted OSCAR. I hope to have these clinic members participating on this list.

To subscribe to the OSCAR ALBERTA newsgroup - please feel free to visit the following link:

https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/oscaralberta-discussions

Because things are starting to heat up on the OSCAR Alberta Front....I am going to post at least once every couple of weeks with an update as to our progress.

John Fernandes.