Ross Campbell

Life insurers have been flirting with a new digital paradigm in underwriting, health protection and remote claims. Perhaps now is the time.

Insurers need not panic. The coronavirus pattern of broad-spectrum severity, with deaths mainly in sickly individuals, is akin to most flu outbreaks.

Wearables and self-reported data can provide Personalized Activity Intelligence (PAI), which measures cardiorespiratory fitness.

Life and critical illness products protect policyholders from financial loss but until now have helped little on safeguarding customers’ health.

New technologies mean disability income protection claims managers can enhance and expand the support and services they offer.

Consumers increasingly value experiences above physical things. Can a new breed of protection products push them toward better health?

Or will it be more like the internet? So far, while blockchain shouldn't be treated as a panacea, it's looking much more like the internet.

For insurers, digital technology offers new ways to manage risk that relies less on face-to-face and traditional clinical assessment.

While wearables and apps are associated with promoting physical fitness, technology is increasingly used in lifestyle monitoring of the elderly.

For health insurers, digital technology offers new ways to manage risk that rely less on face-to-face and traditional clinical assessment.

The focus can move from life protection to life enablement, support that helps people lead a long and healthy life.

Estonia's entire electronic patient records of its 1.3 million citizens are collated in one central database, underpinned using blockchain.

The scale at which highly personalized data is being generated by consumers is growing at a remarkable pace.

There are potentially significant benefits for consumers who allow access to data on their lifestyle, activity, medical history and genetic makeup.

Life insurers can offer modular products--that can be built up or down and switched on and off to reflect much better how life’s risks ebb and flow.

Smartphone apps are perfect for, say, detecting depression by watching for a fall in exercise and movement and fewer social interactions.

Recent evidence suggests activity tracking brings no immediate measurable health benefit, but this misses the point -- and an opportunity.

The data could be valuable to life and health insurers because the amount and quality of sleep provide insights into our long-term health.

It may not occur to most users of a fitness app, for instance, that their personal data will be disclosed to the device manufacturers.

If the industry makes better use of technology, it will make life insurance accessible for large numbers of people who have none or too little.

Some life insurers now use data from fitness trackers to lower premiums. But does a policyholder’s number of steps really improve mortality?