Draft terms for the Institute’s calculators
Consultation on the terms governing the Institute's calculators. The draft states that a calculator implements a published formula, that it holds no user data, and that its output is a computation and not clinical advice.
§1Consultation and window
§1.1Window
- Opened
- 7 February 2025
- Closed
- 24 March 2025
- Duration
- 45 days
- Status
- Closed — the disposition is published
- Document under consultation
- Governance document
- Submissions received
- 18
§1.2Consultation questions
The secretariat put the following questions. A submission was not required to address them and several did not; the questions record what the Institute was uncertain about rather than restricting what a respondent could raise.
- Is the statement that a calculator output is not clinical advice placed where a user will see it before entering a value?
- Should the underlying formula and its source be shown alongside the result rather than linked from it?
- Is the statement that no data are transmitted verifiable by a reader who does not read the source?
§1.3How a submission is handled
- Every submission is signed. The Institute publishes no anonymous submission.
- Every submission carries a declared interest. A declaration of no interest is itself a declaration and is recorded as one. A declaration is not a disqualification and the Institute has never given a submission less weight on that ground.
- A submission from an employee of a marketing-authorisation holder is identified as an industry submission on its face, following a unanimous consultation on the conflicts policy.
- Every submission receives a secretariat response and a disposition. Submissions that are not accepted remain published in full; the Institute does not remove a submission because it disagrees with it.
- There is no voting, no reputation score, no reply thread and no editing after receipt.
§1.4Outcome
The terms were ratified with amendments. The formula and its source are now shown alongside every result, and the calculators carry a statement, verifiable from the page source, that computation is performed in the browser and no value is transmitted.
The disposition table, listing each submission with its disposition and the resulting amendment, is at §3.