To fill or annotate PDFs for free you can use the Microsoft Edge browser. It has tools for text entry, drawing, etc. and is quick/easy to use. You can save the PDF with your edits and then upload to the patient’s chart in OSCAR EMR.
If you want to only export specific pages, you can open the PDF in your PDF viewer and select the option for “Print to PDF” or “Save as PDF” and enter only the pages you want under the page range options.
To split, merge, combine, extract PDFs you can use the open-source “PDFsam” app (which stands for PDF Split And Merge). It processes the operations locally on your computer without uploading anything online, it’s open-source (completely free – PDFsam Basic), and doesn’t have the annoying pop-ups requesting license/subscriptions like Adobe. Works on Windows, Mac, Linux.
Avoid using any online PDF annotation/merge/split etc. tools as they upload the PDF to remote servers, who knows how the data is processed and it’s not PIPEDA/PHIPA compliant.
For dictation, there are many options available which you need to decide on including in terms of compliance with privacy/PIPEDA etc. laws. Some dictation options include:
- Windows built-in dictation – For Windows users, just press Windows key + H to bring up the dictation toolbar. It will type into the text box your cursor is currently in.
- Microsoft Word dictation (this feature requires Microsoft 365 subscription before it will show up in the menu). You can dictate notes into Word, and use Word’s rich auto correct/word suggestion compared to the browser’s limited spell check/dictionary features.
- Dragon – has been around for a long time. Now also includes ambient scribe features etc.
- TaliAI – integrated with OSCAR Pro. Also includes Windows and Mac apps as well as browser extension for use elsewhere. AI powered dictation and also includes ambient AI scribe etc.
- MacOS built-in dictation – for Mac users, there is a built-in “Start Dictation” option in the “Edit” menu of almost every app (Edit>Start Dictation) so you can dictate right into the selected text entry box (i.e. the OSCAR encounter note).