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Insurance industry mourns pioneering great

The insurance industry is still mourning and adjusting to the loss of one of its pioneering members, Dr. RDC Brackenridge. The former medical underwriter died recently at the age of 90.

One of the most well used texts in the medical insurance industry was written by Dr. Brackenridge in 1962. “The Medical Aspects of Life Assurance” was one of the first arguments published for an evidence-based approach to risk assessment and it changed the way the medical insurance industry functioned.

Today, experts in the field still refer to “The Medical Selection of Life Risks,” the fifth edition of Dr. Brackenridge’s book, as the “gold standard” reference when it comes to making difficult decisions in underwriting.

In 1959, Dr. Brackenridge began working as a consulting medical officer with a company that was acquired by Swiss Re. Martyn Parker, an executive board member for the company, worked with Dr. Brackenridge and remembers him well.

“He instilled into underwriters and consulting medical officers the need for continuous and meticulous research, along with a readiness to apply sound reasoning and judgement to underwriting decisions,” Mr. Parker said.

According to Mr. Parker, Dr Brackenridge, “helped to create an evidence-based approach to underwriting and strongly influenced successive generations of underwriters and CMOs. This approach over time has enabled many people - previously considered uninsurable because of their medical histories - to obtain life cover.”


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Yasmin Purnell Editorial


15/02/2008