Management of Cholesterol in Adults

Please note that the link to the ASSIGN calculator on this document is not currently operational. See below for info:

Dear Colleagues,

Patient Safety Issue with Online ASSIGN v1.5 Calculator

We have been alerted to the following malfunction of the online calculator. Please see the advice below for further details and next steps.

Situation

It has been highlighted that there is a fault with the risk assessment calculator on the website www.assign-score.com.

Background

The www.assign-score.com website was developed in 2006 by Professor Hugh Tunstall-Pedoe and Professor Mark Woodward based at the University of Dundee. It is used to estimate the 10 year risk of cardiovascular disease and is recommended in SIGN 149: Risk estimation and the prevention of cardiovascular disease.

Assessment

As of the 22nd November 2024 the risk calculator has stopped operating correctly, giving the result of 12 for any combination of values entered onto the website. It also appears that the lookup of Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation from postcode has stopped working. Therefore the website is no longer operating to provide risk scores that could be used to support clinical care and cardiovascular risk management.

Recommendation

1) With immediate effect clinicians are to STOP using the website.

2) Where clinicians have used the website since 22nd November to inform care, they should now give significant consideration to review their clinical decisions.

3) Where available, clinicians should make use of other  implementations of this calculator which may be built into their clinical systems (e.g. Vision+ or Bluebay CT). For those without embedded ASSIGN calculators the website does include a downloadable offline version, however we recognise that Health Board Security policies may prevent the use of that.

4) Where necessary report any adverse care issues via local clinical line management e.g. the DATIX system

Measures are being undertaken to restore the functionality in the website, a further communication will follow if that proves possible