Engineering a Software Supported Health Risk Appraisal Method: A Joint Effort between Academia and Health Care Industry

This paper describes a software engineering educational experience and collaboration between the Seidenberg School of Computer Science at Pace University (SCSIS) and Pfizer Incpsilas Clinical Applications Team. The goal of the project was to develop a Coronary Heart Disease Risk Factor Calculator (CHD-RFC) utilizing all the experience acquired during a software engineering seminar course . Developed with the patient in mind, the tool provides powerful features such as three CHD risk algorithm choices, a health report, and a progress chart. The project, the tool and the social implications of a software-assisted health risk appraisal method are discussed.