Insurance Medicine

Resting heart rate effectively segments mortality across age, gender and BMI, even when factoring in number of steps and hours slept.

One year after the outbreak of COVID‑19, it has become apparent that patients who have recovered from the acute illness may still struggle with long-term consequences.

How much do different factors influence COVID-19 mortality risk versus all-cause mortality risk? RGA’s Global Data Insights team set out to answer this question through a thorough analysis and comparison of COVID-19 and all-cause mortality risk factors for the population of England.

Is diabetes more deadly for women and the young? Recent research, jointly undertaken by RGA and MIB, examines mortality and morbidity indicators for diabetics based, for the first time, on both MIB’s impairment records and RGA’s prescription drug history information.

Research suggests that the cause of rising incidence rates of cancer in adolescents and young adults relate to the increasing prevalence of obesity, the consumption of a Westernized diet, and leading a sedentary lifestyle. A focus on lifestyle and dietary habits of young insurance applicants would provide useful insights into the top modifiable risk factors for cancer and help stem the inevitable rising rates of claims for cancer.

Aortic aneurysms are usually silent killers in that most (almost all that involve the abdominal part of the aorta and half that involve the upper or thoracic part) are generally asymptomatic.
 

Dr. Radhika Counsell, Consulting Medical Officer, offers a deep dive into differentiated thyroid cancers and discusses this topic in the context of critical illness claims assessment in ReFlections.

ReFlections editor Dr. Daniel D. Zimmerman, Senior Vice President, Head of Global Medical, reviews therapeutic monoclonal antibodies, which are rapidly growing in importance for a multitude of disorders for both prevention and treatment.

The webinar “Medicine and Machine Learning” explores the impact of machine learning on medical practices and how that applies to risk assessment.
 

RGA Hong Kong and the RGA Asia Pacific regional team explore recent innovations in genetic testing and provide guidance on how insurers can prepare for and adapt to changes on the horizon in the genetic moratorium era.