How many people use OSCAR?

[DanEm]

I am working on arguments to convince my lung specialist that the data I submit from OSCAR is good and trustworthy.
She and I are not located in densely populated city in Canada, Quebec.  Her knowledge about OSCAR seems off or non existent?????

One thing that would help is if you can tell me if you know how many people are using OSCAR.  Not just members of this forum but throughout the world.

Is that information available?

Thanks

[SuperSleeper]

It's literally impossible to know the exact figure.  We aren't currently actively monitoring the download stats from the official download page, other than what's in our server logs.  We have used Awstats (server-app) to estimate monthly downloads in the past, but again, it isn't a foolproof or even accurate way to determine how many people use OSCAR.

Also, there's other ways to distribute OSCAR (other than from the official download page).  Building from source, for instance.  Or even sending the app via email to a friend.

Short of developing an internal "phone-home" section of code within OSCAR that reports back to the server every time someone creates a user account on their OSCAR app, I'm not sure there's any way to get an accurate estimate of how many people actually use the software. 

Perhaps one of the developers can add info on this.   Of course, anything is possible.   I'm just not sure on how high a priority such a feature would be on the to-do list for developers.  I'm not even sure it would be a wise thing to have OSCAR tally how many users there are and report back via an internet connection to the "mother ship".  Some people might think that to be a privacy issue;  there's already a subset of people who don't even like it when their CPAP machine uses a cellular connection to report back to their DME/doctor.

[clownbell]

@Dan Em -

I regularly read AB. It seems there are very few people in the professional sleep industry who know OSCAR exists. Once in a while a user reports taking OSCAR printouts to their doc and the doc actually knows what it is. Most often, the docs are clueless. They seem to prefer relying on proprietary software.

[RainbowFish]

Yes. I concur, when I even showed my (now gone) provider a Wellue Ring report and asked about correlation (or lack thereof) with their send-out oximeter, she seemed unaware of the home devices/software options. Since I live in a seriously medically underserved state, for me Oscar is an extremely valuable tool. The wait to see my new provider was/is about 9 months, so without Oscar and the Ring I would have no feed back except MyAir for greater than a year.

I would point out to your lung specialist that Oscar is just tapping into the data that ResMed is sending to the mothership, not creating it's own measurements.

[DanEm]

Thank you all, I got the picture