QRISK2 Goes Open Source

The heart disease risk assessment tool QRisk2 has been made available as open source software by Nottingham University and healthcare IT suppliers EMIS. The university and EMIS said the decision would mean all users, including academics, PCTs and commercial health software suppliers, would be able to develop software using QRisk2 free of charge.

The move follows research published in the BMJ last week that concluded that QRisk2 was more accurate at identifying people in the UK at high risk of developing cardiovascular disease than the Framingham equation. Dr David Stables, EMIS’s director of strategic development and co-founder of QResearch, the clinical database used to develop QRisk2, said EMIS was delighted that the software was now available as open source...