CommInsure’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr Bill Monday, has recently completed a series of national roadshow presentations for advisers.
In his medical insight sessions, Dr Monday shared with advisers the latest knowledge and thinking about the future of medicine and how this is impacting the insurance industry.
Dr Monday covered how new technologies and research findings are shaping the future of underwriting and how this information can help advisers better understand the traumas that their clients may have experienced or may do so in future.
Dr Monday explored a range of medical issues in his presentations, including information, facts and figures on Heart Conditions, Cancer and Multiple Sclerosis:
Heart Conditions
- 50 per cent of people who have a heart attack have a normal cholesterol level and half of the people who have a heart attack have a 50-60 per cent blockage in their arteries
- There is now more emphasis on looking at the quality of the cholesterol present in a person’s body
- Now the focus is on drugs that transport cholesterol out of the artery wall and out of the body
Cancer
- In 2010 there were 52 notable advances documented by a society of cancer specialists, of which 12 were deemed major advances
- There have been 72 melanoma trials around the world in the last 30 years, but they have failed to make significant improvement in treatment for those with advanced melanoma. But in 2010 that drought was broken. A new line of drugs has been shown to help those people with late stage melanoma.
- The drug doesn’t target the melanoma cell but actually boosts the body’s own immune system to kill off the melanoma cells. This, combined with another drug affecting a protein that prevents melanoma cells from proliferating and spreading, is reason to be more optimistic.
Dr Monday reported that similar advances are happening in ovarian and lung cancer:
- In ovarian cancer, drugs that prevent the growth of blood vessels needed to feed the cancer are producing good results
- In lung cancer, drugs focused on a person’s genetics and the specific genetic mutation causing the lung cancer are delivering results
Other facts included:
- The understanding of cancer at the molecular and genetic level is beginning to reap rewards, even in those cancers that historically have been very difficult to treat such as melanoma, ovarian cancer and lung cancer
- In 2005, the quoted out-of-pocket cost to an individual after diagnosis of cancer ranged from $10,000 to $203,600, with an average amount of $47,200
- Australia is actively screening people over 50 for bowel cancer and as a consequence more people are being diagnosed when their cancer is at an earlier stage
- Before screening only 17 per cent of bowel cancers were picked up at an early stage. Now 43 per cent are picked up at an early stage
Multiple Sclerosis
Dr Monday told advisers that “One of the most rewarding parts of my job is signing off a claim for a client affected by a chronic neurological disease like multiple sclerosis”.
- Multiple Sclerosis (MS) affects women three times more frequently as men and manifests most commonly between the ages of 20-40 – although 10 per cent are diagnosed under age 18
- 20,000 Australians have MS
- The disease seems to be a combination of genetic factors, environmental factors and the immune system of the person
- There has been fantastic progress in reducing and attenuating the damage to the myelin around nerves through newer disease modifying agents. The future is moving these treatments from injections to oral tablets.
- The next stage is neural damage repair
