26 February 2020
Chris Reynolds, Chair of the IFoA’s Health and Care Practice Board, blogs on discussions at the latest board meeting and invites input from members.
The Health and Care (H&C) Board has just approved its objectives for the new session. One of these is to increase our transparency and engagement with the membership.
In order to help facilitate this the Board has decided to write short blogs to share what’s discussed in our Committee meetings. As Chair of the Board I have the debatable honour of writing the first one!
This is intended to be a short and high-level overview. Any members keen to find out more on any of the topics are encouraged to reach out to either myself, as Chair, or any other board members.
On 5 February we held our first meeting of 2020 and discussed a wide variety of topics. Some of the main topics included:
- Graham Stott – the Chair of the Management Board – was today’s guest. He and the Board engaged in a lively and engaging discussion about the future of the IFoA. One of the many points raised was how do we build a community that members see value in and want to be a part of.
- Elena McLachlan – from the Regulation Board – provided an update on their work in developing a ‘horizon scanning register’. The H&C Board was asked for its view on the top three to four emerging regulatory risks in the health and care space. The Board will be thinking about this over the coming weeks, but if any members have burning thoughts they should let us know.
- Now that Brexit has entered the transition period, the H&C Board is being asked whether there are specific issues in health and care that we should be closely monitoring. Board members are currently thinking about this, but any members with suggestions should get in touch.
- The Board was presented with the final agenda for the Protection, Health and Care conference. The conference will be open to bookings very soon – we encourage you to sign-up early and look forward to seeing as many of you as possible in Brighton this June.
We also received a comprehensive update from the Research Sub-Committee:
- Scott Reid – the Research Sub-Committee Chair – provided updates on the status of current working parties, including the E-cigarettes group that will be holding a sessional meeting on 24 February 2020, in Edinburgh. The sessional meeting will be available to watch online at a later date.
- It was also pleasing to hear that the IFoA’s Actuarial Research Centre (ARC) has attracted four partners to co-fund the delivery of commissioned research on diabetes. More details on this will be available soon.
- Finally, the Board discussed a number of potential area for future research including electronic health records, climate change and the role of the actuary in healthcare. As always, if members have areas they feel should be researched then they should get in touch.
That’s all for now. If there’s any feedback on this format, or any questions or suggestions, please email me at Professional.communities@actuaries.org.uk.