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Agency says only new version is funding-eligible but some doctors say it has glitches
OntarioMD has * M drawn fire for its most recent funding requirements around OSCAR, an open-source EMR.
According to a notification sent out from OntarioMD (a province-funded Ontario Medical Association subsidiary), only the most recent version of the EMR software (OSCAR 12.1.1) is funding-eligible and, in order to receive it, physicians must sign a "terms of use" agreement that absolves OSCAR and the vendor, McMaster University, of any legal responsibility in the event of a security breach.
Letters circulating among physicians argue there are several reasons why this is a bad deal. Foremost among their concerns is that the new version of OSCAR has several purported bugs, some of which may compromise the security of the EMR and could result in privacy breaches or missed communications that are out of the practitioner's control.
David Daley, the founder of Indivica, an open-source EMR vendor, said this is the reason their company is not offering the new version...