Getting Support

The developer I'm working with is using some exciting new tools (Google Web Tools) to standardize and "slick up" the OSCAR user interface....mostly for my billing screen use.....but we hope to extend this to the rest of OSCAR with the support & help of the Developer's community.

There is growing interest in Alberta in OSCAR - and a great article about OSCAR was summarized in the Vancouver Sun by Dr. David Chan on June 15, 2009.

I've approached the president of the Alberta Medical Association to look into helping me get OSCAR going - and I was impressed that Dr. Noel Grisedale responded by asking one of his colleagues up in Edmonton to look into OSCAR to see what can be done to support my efforts!

Next step is to approach government offices and an MLA or three - getting the inertia going is a little like rolling a large boulder by hand....but hopefully soon it won't be so hard!

JF

If you build it...they will come....won't they?

OSCAR work is progressing nicely.

LOTS of things had to come together since my last post.

Aart (my programmer partner) has been granted access to the main CVS trunk for OSCAR, and he has some very exciting ideas on modernizing the software to have a much more modern look & feel.  We're going to immediately implement this modern "Mac-esque" look & feel of OSCAR to the Alberta Version's billing page.  It's going to be very cool!

We need to build a larger user base for OSCAR in Alberta - to that end, I'm going to start my campaign through paid ads, demos and through the Drug Reps.  It'll be a LOT easier for naturally suspicious Alberta Docs to have a useable OSCAR to see in demo - so I'm working hard on the UI aspect of a presentation.

Today, I bought Macspeech - which uses the Dragon Naturally Speaking engine for speech recognition input into OSCAR.  I also bought the Revolabs xtag wireless USB Microphone.

I also just learned that there is a firmware update for my Intel SSD drives that I put in my new servers!

Shouldn't be too long before we have a useable version of OSCAR for Alberta.  In the mean time, I'm also renovating my office.  I'm building a nice new LARGE work desk for my nurses (with nice granite counter tops & natural cherry cabinets & shelving, which will have nestled "holders" for the servers and OSCAR I/O computers.  We're also putting in new flooring, new examination room tables, etc., etc.  Should be nice when it is done.

One could argue that I'll never recoup my investment in OSCAR or my new "high end looking" office.  But not everything is about money.  It's also about how you feel when you go to work.  My office environment will now be something closer to what you see on the TV show "Private Practice".  It's nice to feel good about the work environment.....the Chinese have known this for 1000's of years.

I'm also buying the new Xerox multifunction printer, the 4260XM.  It's expensive, but works like a hot damn for faxing, receiving fax to email/ftp and copying/printing/scanning (in duplex).

More soon.....

Some progress on Alberta OSCAR

I haven't updated in a while.  To date, my developer, Aart has been very busy and has visited both Vancouver and Toronto to learn more about OSCAR development procedures and to get welcomed into the developers community.

I now have a key fob and password to test our Alberta Billing Module on Alberta Health Service's test server - and we're going to see if we can't get something going over the next month.

The billing interface will be common to all Provincial billing interfaces across Canada - as we would like to not redundantly reinvent the proverbial wheel.

On the practical side of things, I am going to get a 15' Macbook Pro and install Parallels on it with Windows XP to run Dragon's Natrually Speaking speech recognition software.  I'm going to use a Plantronics Blu-tooth  wireless microphone to dictate - directly into the fields of the firefox browser that I'm also going go run on the Parallels-nested Windows installation.

Why Windows?  Well -the only reason is because it is the only OS for which Dragon's mature software is available.  Once it is available in its full form for Mac OS - I'm going to have a little burning party to burn any and all of my Windows OS CD ROM's!

Hopefully, it won't be long.

I now have two mirrored servers that run Solid State 32 Gb hard drives and which consume only about 6 watts of power!  These servers are deadly silent, deadly cool an deadly fast!

The investment in the new intel Solid state x-25 drives was expensive - but absolutely worth it!

I'm planning on being able to use an "Alberta Version" of OSCAR at the Family Medicine Forum in October.....the pressure is on!

To date, my "free open source software experience" has cost about $10,000.  Good thing I don't have any other expensive vices!

JF

The First Alberta OSCAR Users Group Meeting

Well,

The first Annual Alberta User's Group meeting is scheduled to take place at 10:00 a.m. at the Grand Wailea Hotel in Maui, Hawaii on March 19th, 2009.

It looks like there will be only one attendee this year.

Features of this year's OSCAR experiences will be conveyed by interpretive hula.

Hopefully there will be more attendees next year.

JF

Oh, for Fork's sake!

I just learned that OSCAR development isn't something as simple as getting/hiring a programmer to make the changes that you want.

This apparently results in something called a "forked" version of OSCAR.  Forked versions are generally considered "bad" by open source groups.

In fact, I've learned so far that by doing things without the involvement of the OSCAR development in general....I would be considered a bloody, no-good "motherforker"!

Not wanting to do that, I found a list of the officially accepted development process for getting OSCAR modified.  I've done most of the initial steps...and have discovered that the "critical"step (step "f") needs me to find funding.

I tried the AMA, the POSP, the Primary Care Network, Alberta Health, etc.....but nobody wants to fund it (although they all think that it is a good idea).....so....I'm going to "Self" fund this with my own money.  Hopefully I'll find a way to get it back one day.  We'll see if the kids can tell whether or not they're eating generic Kraft dinner......will know if the cat disappears....

I also had to learn what a "PLONE" site was....this is an important aspect of OSCAR development.....I STILL don't know what the heck a Plone site is.....but I'm going to watch the video (click on the link).  I think that I'm going to feel very smart after I watch the video...

Next steps are to acquaint my programmer with the development community.....

JF

What's new

While I haven't blogged...I've learned a LOT.

I met with a really good guy who is a very talented and "high level" programmer.  He patiently spent some time with me to open my pea brain to the "real scope" of bringing OSCAR to Alberta.

Current tasks that I've started on:

1)  Filling out the Alberta Health H-Link paperwork to get a key fob so I can access the Alberta Health test server for the billing module.

2)  Filling out the Calgary Lab Services paperwork so I can do the same thing to get HL7 lab data into OSCAR

3)  Met with "Da guy" that is capable of doing this whole thing

4)  Emailed my accountant to see if I can fund this project personally under the new CCA (Capital Cost Allowances Program) with CRA that will hopefully allow me to deduct 100% of hardware & software costs until Feb. 2011.

5)  Had another look at my hardware requirements:  I'm going to postpone all of that and play with OSCAR on the Programmer's server (he installed it!).

6)  Restarted the process of getting part B done on my PIA (Privacy Impact Assessment).  Part A is complete.  The PCN (Primary Care Network) will help me with this.

More soon!

The Roadmap to getting OSCAR going

I've learned the real secret in getting OSCAR going in Alberta:

It's all about establishing relationships.

I've decided that it is not enough to simply install OSCAR in my office on a single computer.  What I really want is an established hardware/network/software support foundation to not only help me get OSCAR going - but to help others get it going in Alberta that come after me.

And so, I'm going to try out a well established company called Layer 10 in Calgary that provides hardware and network installation and support.  They understand the concepts of redundant backups, RAID configurations, redundant servers and remote access.

This is mission critical work, and no amount of possible "down time" will be in any way ever acceptable - even if the power goes off.

I'm currently awaiting a quote on a couple of mirrored IBM servers from Layer 10, and will go forward probably some time next week (depending on the price).  Linux Ubuntu will be supplied and running on the servers by the Layer 10 folks.  

The next step will be to become an accredited submitter to Alberta Health.  This involves some paperwork that I have to fill out and fax back next week.

The next step after that will be to fill out some paperwork to get the Calgary Health Region to port HL7 data into OSCAR.  To access this, I have to fill out some other application forms - which I will do next week as well.

Did I mention that since I started this crusade, the Calgary Health Region has ceased to exist?  Some "progressive politics" in Alberta has decided to do away with regions in favor of a more streamlined Provincial Medical Administration.  Probably a great idea, but dealing with the Region is now even more confusing than it was before this new change.....

I THEN have to eventually ensure that OSCAR becomes "VCUR compatible", so that POSP funding will eventually be able to support it.  

Some very decent and generous people that I have met through the BC OSCAR users group have offered to help me get an Alberta Billing module and Calgary Lab Services module built for Alberta.  Hopefully, because a lot of groundwork for Ontario and B.C. has already been done; this will not be too much of a task - but I anticipate a few road bumps.

I have received the "H-Link" manual from Alberta Health.  It was last published in the Cretaceous era, and has not been updated in a paper version since.  An updated electronic version does exist, but Alberta Health is apparently unsuccessful in emailing the large document.  I've scanned the whole "older document" and have posted it on the site above.

So - practical things first in the next orders of business:

1)  Get my server(s) (Layer 10 folks to help) and then install OSCAR on it (kind list folks to help).

2)  Get my network going (wireless and wired.  Layer 10 folks to help).

3)  Become an accredited Submitter for Alberta Health (paperwork needed)

4)  Become an accredited Receiver for Calgary Lab Services (paperwork needed)

5)  Get OSCAR VCUR compliant to eventually qualify for POSP funding (a long-term goal)

6)  Get an Alberta Billing and Labs Module set up

7)  Get a scanning section of OSCAR going so I can eventually be "truly paperless".

8)  Talk to Radiology Consultants to get their techies to help me integrate a connection from OSCAR to view Diagnostic images and reports (Region Wide).

9)  Learn as much as I can about Linux Ubuntu and Java programming.  Bought some books on this stuff - this looks like a good choice.....