Concepts

MyOSCAR is an online version of your health record that belongs to you alone. Essentially the opposite of the current approach to medical records, MyOSCAR is owned and controlled by you, and can only be accessed by those to whom you grant permission. The following concepts are central to MyOSCAR's vision:

Personal Control

• MyOSCAR is an actual medical record that patients control and own, not a portal. (Portals, often provided by health care institutions, are windows through which patients can only view a portion of their health data stored at that institution.)

• Patients control what information is added and modified, which increases their involvement in their health care. They also decide who else can view or change their record.
  
• By giving patients control over their medical record, we hope to empower patients to take control of their own health and well-being.

• With MyOSCAR, information and records from many sources can be stored in one place, allowing the patient and the physician to have access to data that is complete and up-to-date.
  
• As MyOSCAR use grows, cooperation between fragmented services (clinics, specialists, pharmacists, hospitals) will increase. Consistency of health information among services will be maintained.
  

• An online medical record means that each patient's health information is at their fingertips twenty-four hours a day, provided they have access to a computer and the Internet.

• As with traditional medical records, privacy is essential. MyOSCAR's multi-level security model provides strong data security. Each record is encrypted, protecting against unauthorized access to servers or backup medium.
  
• Information and messages can only be accessed by MyOSCAR users, who must be authenticated by user name and password.
• Patients have complete control over who has permission to view their record as well as what level of authorization each user has.
  

• Adapted from the open source Indivo project from MIT/Harvard, source code for MyOSCAR is open and freely available to all developers.
• This enables MyOSCAR to be customized locally for specific clinics, or adapted to be interoperable with other vendor products.

 The image below shows how MyOSCAR interacts with the health care system.