How payments from insurance companies might potentially bias proponents of CBT and/or GET for ME/CFS (such as the PACE Trial investigators)

One here, more to come.....
  1. John Schoonbee, global chief medical officer, Swiss Re,
  2. Emile Elefteriadis, head of life and health products Canada, Swiss Re
  1. Correspondence to: J Schoonbee John_Schoonbee@swissre.com
The benefits of better diets extend beyond health

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” More than 2000 years ago Hippocrates already recognised the link between nutrition and health. Today this link has an ever growing effect on our global society and, in particular, on insurers, who provide a financial safety net for people around the world. In the US, the world’s largest life insurance market, insurers provide nearly $2tn in coverage for individual life policies.1
Changing world health
Dr John Schoonbee talks to Gemma Gregson and Richard Purcell about reinventing dietary guidelines, e-cigarettes and advances in diagnostic techniques

10 AUGUST 2017 | BY GEMMA GREGSON & RICHARD PURCELL

getresource.axd

Data asymmetry keeps me awake at night. But the UK is in a special position because of good health records

As global chief medical officer for Swiss Re, Dr John Schoonbee describes his role as “a compromise between actuarial science and medicine”. Torn between the two disciplines, he initially chose medicine but admits he had a “hankering for numbers”. While practicing clinically as a disability management consultant he started doing ad-hoc consultancy work for a reinsurer, eventually moving permanently into the reinsurance industry.

Explaining that the role of chief medical officer can be a varied one encompassing product development, underwriting and claims, he says: “I think an involved doctor at an insurer or reinsurer sees a broader view of life insurance than any single, individual function.”

Research and development is also an important aspect of the role. “We focus on the latest disease trends as well as developments in diagnostics and treatments that affect global health. It’s about changing health and sometimes even challenging things where we see room for improvement......”The UK is in a special position because of good health records so non-disclosure of information is hard but there may be things that people know about that they don’t disclose............”
 


This is so compelling...... I might have to get it transcribed ( not about ME but Fiona Godlee. BMJ and SWiss Re, no less....about the bigger picture in medicine!) "Hypocritic" oath or what?

John S on the thorny issue of bias!
 
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Interesting but CEO not CMO- but it's all change at Swiss Re!

Oops, thanks for pointing that out. Close reading is not my forte anymore.

The google search kept insisting I wanted to search CEO. It looks like anything that might have put PDW and Swiss re in the same line has been scrubbed from the internet from my searching.
 
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RE John M's letter to Norman Lamb....needs some checking for accuracy?

(My emphasis)

"Background


The PACE trial was an evaluation of the therapies that were recommended by NICE at the time that the study was proposed, with the caveat that the evidence base at this time was weak...."


Yet, how could NICE Guidance recommend this proposal as their guidance was not developed in 2003!!?

"The trial was prospectively registered in ISRCTN on 22 May 2003......"

This is telling.......


"The results of the trials were published in high impact journals with peer review processes that would generally be regarded as robust (though not infallible)."
 
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