7 results
Capabilities of global high-level isolation units: A pre-workshop survey
- Jocelyn J. Herstein, Timo Wolf, Emanuele Nicastri, Yee Sin Leo, Poh Lian Lim, Michael Jacobs, Sharon Vanairsdale, Eric Toner, Matthew P. Shearer, Angela Vasa, Vikram Mukherjee, Andrea Echeverri, Erica S. Shenoy, John J. Lowe
-
- Journal:
- Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology / Volume 43 / Issue 11 / November 2022
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 01 December 2021, pp. 1679-1685
- Print publication:
- November 2022
-
- Article
- Export citation
-
Objective:
To assess experience, physical infrastructure, and capabilities of high-level isolation units (HLIUs) planning to participate in a 2018 global HLIU workshop hosted by the US National Emerging Special Pathogens Training and Education Center (NETEC).
Design:An electronic survey elicited information on general HLIU organization, operating costs, staffing models, and infection control protocols of select global units.
Setting and participants:The survey was distributed to site representatives of 22 HLIUs located in the United States, Europe, and Asia; 19 (86%) responded.
Methods:Data were coded and analyzed using descriptive statistics.
Results:The mean annual reported budget for the 19 responding units was US$484,615. Most (89%) had treated a suspected or confirmed case of a high-consequence infectious disease. Reported composition of trained teams included a broad range of clinical and nonclinical roles. The mean number of HLIU beds was 6.37 (median, 4; range, 2–20) for adults and 4.23 (median, 2; range, 1–10) for children; however, capacity was dependent on pathogen.
Conclusions:Responding HLIUs represent some of the most experienced HLIUs in the world. Variation in reported unit infrastructure, capabilities, and procedures demonstrate the variety of HLIU approaches. A number of technical questions unique to HLIUs remain unanswered related to physical design, infection prevention and control procedures, and staffing and training. These key areas represent potential focal points for future evidence and practice guidelines. These data are important considerations for hospitals considering the design and development of HLIUs, and there is a need for continued global HLIU collaboration to define best practices.
Sustaining University Operations During the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Benjamin J. Ryan, Michael P. Muehlenbein, Jon Allen, Joshua Been, Kenneth Boyd, Mark Brickhouse, Bryan W. Brooks, Matthew Burchett, C. Kevin Chambliss, Jason D. Cook, Adam Ecklund, Lori Fogleman, Peter Granick, Sharra Hynes, Tonya Hudson, Michelle Huse, Micah Lamb, Tiffany Lowe, Jim Marsh, Niesha Nixon, Dennis Nolan, George Nuñez, Walter “Sparky” Matthews, Sharon Stern, Meaghann Wheelis, Nancy Brickhouse
-
- Journal:
- Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness / Volume 16 / Issue 5 / October 2022
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 08 March 2021, pp. 1901-1909
-
- Article
- Export citation
-
Colleges and universities around the world engaged diverse strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Baylor University, a community of ˜22,700 individuals, was 1 of the institutions which resumed and sustained operations. The key strategy was establishment of multidisciplinary teams to develop mitigation strategies and priority areas for action. This population-based team approach along with implementation of a “Swiss Cheese” risk mitigation model allowed small clusters to be rapidly addressed through testing, surveillance, tracing, isolation, and quarantine. These efforts were supported by health protocols including face coverings, social distancing, and compliance monitoring. As a result, activities were sustained from August 1 to December 8, 2020. There were 62,970 COVID-19 tests conducted with 1435 people testing positive for a positivity rate of 2.28%. A total of 1670 COVID-19 cases were identified with 235 self-reports. The mean number of tests per week was 3500 with approximately 80 of these positive (11/d). More than 60 student tracers were trained with over 120 personnel available to contact trace, at a ratio of 1 per 400 university members. The successes and lessons learned provide a framework and pathway for similar institutions to mitigate the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 and sustain operations during a global pandemic.
Probability of major depression diagnostic classification using semi-structured versus fully structured diagnostic interviews
- Brooke Levis, Andrea Benedetti, Kira E. Riehm, Nazanin Saadat, Alexander W. Levis, Marleine Azar, Danielle B. Rice, Matthew J. Chiovitti, Tatiana A. Sanchez, Pim Cuijpers, Simon Gilbody, John P. A. Ioannidis, Lorie A. Kloda, Dean McMillan, Scott B. Patten, Ian Shrier, Russell J. Steele, Roy C. Ziegelstein, Dickens H. Akena, Bruce Arroll, Liat Ayalon, Hamid R. Baradaran, Murray Baron, Anna Beraldi, Charles H. Bombardier, Peter Butterworth, Gregory Carter, Marcos H. Chagas, Juliana C. N. Chan, Rushina Cholera, Neerja Chowdhary, Kerrie Clover, Yeates Conwell, Janneke M. de Man-van Ginkel, Jaime Delgadillo, Jesse R. Fann, Felix H. Fischer, Benjamin Fischler, Daniel Fung, Bizu Gelaye, Felicity Goodyear-Smith, Catherine G. Greeno, Brian J. Hall, John Hambridge, Patricia A. Harrison, Ulrich Hegerl, Leanne Hides, Stevan E. Hobfoll, Marie Hudson, Thomas Hyphantis, Masatoshi Inagaki, Khalida Ismail, Nathalie Jetté, Mohammad E. Khamseh, Kim M. Kiely, Femke Lamers, Shen-Ing Liu, Manote Lotrakul, Sonia R. Loureiro, Bernd Löwe, Laura Marsh, Anthony McGuire, Sherina Mohd Sidik, Tiago N. Munhoz, Kumiko Muramatsu, Flávia L. Osório, Vikram Patel, Brian W. Pence, Philippe Persoons, Angelo Picardi, Alasdair G. Rooney, Iná S. Santos, Juwita Shaaban, Abbey Sidebottom, Adam Simning, Lesley Stafford, Sharon Sung, Pei Lin Lynnette Tan, Alyna Turner, Christina M. van der Feltz-Cornelis, Henk C. van Weert, Paul A. Vöhringer, Jennifer White, Mary A. Whooley, Kirsty Winkley, Mitsuhiko Yamada, Yuying Zhang, Brett D. Thombs
-
- Journal:
- The British Journal of Psychiatry / Volume 212 / Issue 6 / June 2018
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 02 May 2018, pp. 377-385
- Print publication:
- June 2018
-
- Article
-
- You have access Access
- HTML
- Export citation
-
Background
Different diagnostic interviews are used as reference standards for major depression classification in research. Semi-structured interviews involve clinical judgement, whereas fully structured interviews are completely scripted. The Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI), a brief fully structured interview, is also sometimes used. It is not known whether interview method is associated with probability of major depression classification.
AimsTo evaluate the association between interview method and odds of major depression classification, controlling for depressive symptom scores and participant characteristics.
MethodData collected for an individual participant data meta-analysis of Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) diagnostic accuracy were analysed and binomial generalised linear mixed models were fit.
ResultsA total of 17 158 participants (2287 with major depression) from 57 primary studies were analysed. Among fully structured interviews, odds of major depression were higher for the MINI compared with the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) (odds ratio (OR) = 2.10; 95% CI = 1.15–3.87). Compared with semi-structured interviews, fully structured interviews (MINI excluded) were non-significantly more likely to classify participants with low-level depressive symptoms (PHQ-9 scores ≤6) as having major depression (OR = 3.13; 95% CI = 0.98–10.00), similarly likely for moderate-level symptoms (PHQ-9 scores 7–15) (OR = 0.96; 95% CI = 0.56–1.66) and significantly less likely for high-level symptoms (PHQ-9 scores ≥16) (OR = 0.50; 95% CI = 0.26–0.97).
ConclusionsThe MINI may identify more people as depressed than the CIDI, and semi-structured and fully structured interviews may not be interchangeable methods, but these results should be replicated.
Declaration of interestDrs Jetté and Patten declare that they received a grant, outside the submitted work, from the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, which was jointly funded by the Institute and Pfizer. Pfizer was the original sponsor of the development of the PHQ-9, which is now in the public domain. Dr Chan is a steering committee member or consultant of Astra Zeneca, Bayer, Lilly, MSD and Pfizer. She has received sponsorships and honorarium for giving lectures and providing consultancy and her affiliated institution has received research grants from these companies. Dr Hegerl declares that within the past 3 years, he was an advisory board member for Lundbeck, Servier and Otsuka Pharma; a consultant for Bayer Pharma; and a speaker for Medice Arzneimittel, Novartis, and Roche Pharma, all outside the submitted work. Dr Inagaki declares that he has received grants from Novartis Pharma, lecture fees from Pfizer, Mochida, Shionogi, Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma, Daiichi-Sankyo, Meiji Seika and Takeda, and royalties from Nippon Hyoron Sha, Nanzando, Seiwa Shoten, Igaku-shoin and Technomics, all outside of the submitted work. Dr Yamada reports personal fees from Meiji Seika Pharma Co., Ltd., MSD K.K., Asahi Kasei Pharma Corporation, Seishin Shobo, Seiwa Shoten Co., Ltd., Igaku-shoin Ltd., Chugai Igakusha and Sentan Igakusha, all outside the submitted work. All other authors declare no competing interests. No funder had any role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis and interpretation of the data; preparation, review or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication.
Bilateral ureterolithiasis: A true positive and false negative PoCUS exam in a patient with renal colic
- Matthew P. Lowe, Christopher Cox
-
- Journal:
- Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine / Volume 20 / Issue 6 / November 2018
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 02 April 2018, pp. 957-961
- Print publication:
- November 2018
-
- Article
-
- You have access Access
- HTML
- Export citation
-
Acute flank pain from suspected urolithiasis is a common presenting complaint in the Emergency Department. Multiple computed tomography (CT) has traditionally been the standard imaging modality used to diagnose obstructive kidney stones, however point of care ultrasound (PoCUS) can play an important role in the diagnostic algorithm and risk stratification of acute flank pain. Here, we present the case of a 29-year-old female with suspected urolithiasis, who underwent PoCUS that revealed right-sided hydronephrosis and normal left kidney, bladder, and aorta. A subsequent KUB was negative. As the clinical course failed to improve with therapy, an abdominal and pelvic CT was ordered revealing a 5 mm distal obstructing ureteric calculus at the right vesico-ureteric junction and another 5 mm left mid ureteric calculus. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case in which a patient presenting with acute right-sided flank pain demonstrated unilateral hydronephrosis on PoCUS, but had clinically significant bilateral ureteric stones on CT. Emergency physicians who employ PoCUS for evaluation of flank pain must be aware of its benefits and drawbacks and how they apply to each patient. As such, we have developed a script emergency physicians can use for shared decision-making with renal colic patients when deciding on the appropriate imaging modality.
Contributor affiliations
-
- By Frank Andrasik, Melissa R. Andrews, Ana Inés Ansaldo, Evangelos G. Antzoulatos, Lianhua Bai, Ellen Barrett, Linamara Battistella, Nicolas Bayle, Michael S. Beattie, Peter J. Beek, Serafin Beer, Heinrich Binder, Claire Bindschaedler, Sarah Blanton, Tasia Bobish, Michael L. Boninger, Joseph F. Bonner, Chadwick B. Boulay, Vanessa S. Boyce, Anna-Katharine Brem, Jacqueline C. Bresnahan, Floor E. Buma, Mary Bartlett Bunge, John H. Byrne, Jeffrey R. Capadona, Stefano F. Cappa, Diana D. Cardenas, Leeanne M. Carey, S. Thomas Carmichael, Glauco A. P. Caurin, Pablo Celnik, Kimberly M. Christian, Stephanie Clarke, Leonardo G. Cohen, Adriana B. Conforto, Rory A. Cooper, Rosemarie Cooper, Steven C. Cramer, Armin Curt, Mark D’Esposito, Matthew B. Dalva, Gavriel David, Brandon Delia, Wenbin Deng, Volker Dietz, Bruce H. Dobkin, Marco Domeniconi, Edith Durand, Tracey Vause Earland, Georg Ebersbach, Jonathan J. Evans, James W. Fawcett, Uri Feintuch, Toby A. Ferguson, Marie T. Filbin, Diasinou Fioravante, Itzhak Fischer, Agnes Floel, Herta Flor, Karim Fouad, Richard S. J. Frackowiak, Peter H. Gorman, Thomas W. Gould, Jean-Michel Gracies, Amparo Gutierrez, Kurt Haas, C.D. Hall, Hans-Peter Hartung, Zhigang He, Jordan Hecker, Susan J. Herdman, Seth Herman, Leigh R. Hochberg, Ahmet Höke, Fay B. Horak, Jared C. Horvath, Richard L. Huganir, Friedhelm C. Hummel, Beata Jarosiewicz, Frances E. Jensen, Michael Jöbges, Larry M. Jordan, Jon H. Kaas, Andres M. Kanner, Noomi Katz, Matthew S. Kayser, Annmarie Kelleher, Gerd Kempermann, Timothy E. Kennedy, Jürg Kesselring, Fary Khan, Rachel Kizony, Jeffery D. Kocsis, Boudewijn J. Kollen, Hubertus Köller, John W. Krakauer, Hermano I. Krebs, Gert Kwakkel, Bradley Lang, Catherine E. Lang, Helmar C. Lehmann, Angelo C. Lepore, Glenn S. Le Prell, Mindy F. Levin, Joel M. Levine, David A. Low, Marilyn MacKay-Lyons, Jeffrey D. Macklis, Margaret Mak, Francine Malouin, William C. Mann, Paul D. Marasco, Christopher J. Mathias, Laura McClure, Jan Mehrholz, Lorne M. Mendell, Robert H. Miller, Carol Milligan, Beth Mineo, Simon W. Moore, Jennifer Morgan, Charbel E-H. Moussa, Martin Munz, Randolph J. Nudo, Joseph J. Pancrazio, Theresa Pape, Alvaro Pascual-Leone, Kristin M. Pearson-Fuhrhop, P. Hunter Peckham, Tamara L. Pelleshi, Catherine Verrier Piersol, Thomas Platz, Marcus Pohl, Dejan B. Popović, Andrew M. Poulos, Maulik Purohit, Hui-Xin Qi, Debbie Rand, Mahendra S. Rao, Josef P. Rauschecker, Aimee Reiss, Carol L. Richards, Keith M. Robinson, Melvyn Roerdink, John C. Rosenbek, Serge Rossignol, Edward S. Ruthazer, Arash Sahraie, Krishnankutty Sathian, Marc H. Schieber, Brian J. Schmidt, Michael E. Selzer, Mijail D. Serruya, Himanshu Sharma, Michael Shifman, Jerry Silver, Thomas Sinkjær, George M. Smith, Young-Jin Son, Tim Spencer, John D. Steeves, Oswald Steward, Sheela Stuart, Austin J. Sumner, Chin Lik Tan, Robert W. Teasell, Gareth Thomas, Aiko K. Thompson, Richard F. Thompson, Wesley J. Thompson, Erika Timar, Ceri T. Trevethan, Christopher Trimby, Gary R. Turner, Mark H. Tuszynski, Erna A. van Niekerk, Ricardo Viana, Difei Wang, Anthony B. Ward, Nick S. Ward, Stephen G. Waxman, Patrice L. Weiss, Jörg Wissel, Steven L. Wolf, Jonathan R. Wolpaw, Sharon Wood-Dauphinee, Ross D. Zafonte, Binhai Zheng, Richard D. Zorowitz
- Edited by Michael Selzer, Stephanie Clarke, Leonardo Cohen, Gert Kwakkel, Robert Miller, Case Western Reserve University, Ohio
-
- Book:
- Textbook of Neural Repair and Rehabilitation
- Published online:
- 05 May 2014
- Print publication:
- 24 April 2014, pp ix-xvi
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
Contributor affiliations
-
- By Frank Andrasik, Melissa R. Andrews, Ana Inés Ansaldo, Evangelos G. Antzoulatos, Lianhua Bai, Ellen Barrett, Linamara Battistella, Nicolas Bayle, Michael S. Beattie, Peter J. Beek, Serafin Beer, Heinrich Binder, Claire Bindschaedler, Sarah Blanton, Tasia Bobish, Michael L. Boninger, Joseph F. Bonner, Chadwick B. Boulay, Vanessa S. Boyce, Anna-Katharine Brem, Jacqueline C. Bresnahan, Floor E. Buma, Mary Bartlett Bunge, John H. Byrne, Jeffrey R. Capadona, Stefano F. Cappa, Diana D. Cardenas, Leeanne M. Carey, S. Thomas Carmichael, Glauco A. P. Caurin, Pablo Celnik, Kimberly M. Christian, Stephanie Clarke, Leonardo G. Cohen, Adriana B. Conforto, Rory A. Cooper, Rosemarie Cooper, Steven C. Cramer, Armin Curt, Mark D’Esposito, Matthew B. Dalva, Gavriel David, Brandon Delia, Wenbin Deng, Volker Dietz, Bruce H. Dobkin, Marco Domeniconi, Edith Durand, Tracey Vause Earland, Georg Ebersbach, Jonathan J. Evans, James W. Fawcett, Uri Feintuch, Toby A. Ferguson, Marie T. Filbin, Diasinou Fioravante, Itzhak Fischer, Agnes Floel, Herta Flor, Karim Fouad, Richard S. J. Frackowiak, Peter H. Gorman, Thomas W. Gould, Jean-Michel Gracies, Amparo Gutierrez, Kurt Haas, C.D. Hall, Hans-Peter Hartung, Zhigang He, Jordan Hecker, Susan J. Herdman, Seth Herman, Leigh R. Hochberg, Ahmet Höke, Fay B. Horak, Jared C. Horvath, Richard L. Huganir, Friedhelm C. Hummel, Beata Jarosiewicz, Frances E. Jensen, Michael Jöbges, Larry M. Jordan, Jon H. Kaas, Andres M. Kanner, Noomi Katz, Matthew S. Kayser, Annmarie Kelleher, Gerd Kempermann, Timothy E. Kennedy, Jürg Kesselring, Fary Khan, Rachel Kizony, Jeffery D. Kocsis, Boudewijn J. Kollen, Hubertus Köller, John W. Krakauer, Hermano I. Krebs, Gert Kwakkel, Bradley Lang, Catherine E. Lang, Helmar C. Lehmann, Angelo C. Lepore, Glenn S. Le Prell, Mindy F. Levin, Joel M. Levine, David A. Low, Marilyn MacKay-Lyons, Jeffrey D. Macklis, Margaret Mak, Francine Malouin, William C. Mann, Paul D. Marasco, Christopher J. Mathias, Laura McClure, Jan Mehrholz, Lorne M. Mendell, Robert H. Miller, Carol Milligan, Beth Mineo, Simon W. Moore, Jennifer Morgan, Charbel E-H. Moussa, Martin Munz, Randolph J. Nudo, Joseph J. Pancrazio, Theresa Pape, Alvaro Pascual-Leone, Kristin M. Pearson-Fuhrhop, P. Hunter Peckham, Tamara L. Pelleshi, Catherine Verrier Piersol, Thomas Platz, Marcus Pohl, Dejan B. Popović, Andrew M. Poulos, Maulik Purohit, Hui-Xin Qi, Debbie Rand, Mahendra S. Rao, Josef P. Rauschecker, Aimee Reiss, Carol L. Richards, Keith M. Robinson, Melvyn Roerdink, John C. Rosenbek, Serge Rossignol, Edward S. Ruthazer, Arash Sahraie, Krishnankutty Sathian, Marc H. Schieber, Brian J. Schmidt, Michael E. Selzer, Mijail D. Serruya, Himanshu Sharma, Michael Shifman, Jerry Silver, Thomas Sinkjær, George M. Smith, Young-Jin Son, Tim Spencer, John D. Steeves, Oswald Steward, Sheela Stuart, Austin J. Sumner, Chin Lik Tan, Robert W. Teasell, Gareth Thomas, Aiko K. Thompson, Richard F. Thompson, Wesley J. Thompson, Erika Timar, Ceri T. Trevethan, Christopher Trimby, Gary R. Turner, Mark H. Tuszynski, Erna A. van Niekerk, Ricardo Viana, Difei Wang, Anthony B. Ward, Nick S. Ward, Stephen G. Waxman, Patrice L. Weiss, Jörg Wissel, Steven L. Wolf, Jonathan R. Wolpaw, Sharon Wood-Dauphinee, Ross D. Zafonte, Binhai Zheng, Richard D. Zorowitz
- Edited by Michael E. Selzer, Stephanie Clarke, Leonardo G. Cohen, Gert Kwakkel, Robert H. Miller, Case Western Reserve University, Ohio
-
- Book:
- Textbook of Neural Repair and Rehabilitation
- Published online:
- 05 June 2014
- Print publication:
- 24 April 2014, pp ix-xvi
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
A Change Agenda for Reserving. Report of the General Insurance Reserving Issues Taskforce (GRIT)
- A. R. Jones, P. J. Copeman, E. R. Gibson, N. J. S. Line, J. A. Lowe, P. Martin, P. N. Matthews, D. S. Powell
-
- Journal:
- British Actuarial Journal / Volume 12 / Issue 3 / 01 September 2006
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 10 June 2011, pp. 435-599
-
- Article
- Export citation
-
Reserving is important to our profession as it is a core activity for actuaries. The members of the General Insurance Reserving Issues Taskforce (GRIT) have been considering how actuaries can improve the way in which we do reserving in general insurance. We gathered our thoughts and recommendations together in a Consultation Paper which has been discussed widely in the profession. We are very grateful to everyone who shared their views and comments with us, particularly those who gave us written feedback. We have considered carefully all the feedback which we received and adapted our final report in response to this.
Given the scope and importance of our remit, it is perhaps not surprising that this is not a short paper. We hope that Section 1 provides a reasonable summary.
Generally, our view is that there are many things on which our profession should focus. However, it is also important to remind ourselves of the positive items of feedback which we heard from our stakeholders. In addition to many suggestions for things to do better, we consistently heard the message that actuaries play an extremely valuable role in general insurance.
This is a major testimony to the progress which the actuarial profession has made in recent years in its ability to contribute to the general insurance industry. Perhaps it is because of this progress that now is an appropriate time for us, as a profession, to take a hard look at what we do in reserving, and ask ourselves whether there are any things which we could do differently. We hope that GRIT's report will facilitate this debate.
GRIT's recommendations fall under the following key themes:
— Providing more transparency to our reserving methods and helping our stakeholders have more insight into the key reserving assumptions and decisions.
— Providing more information on uncertainty in our reserve estimates. In particular, we recommend that actuaries provide a quantitative indication of the range of outcomes for future claim payments, and that our profession defines a common vocabulary for communicating uncertainty.
— Understanding better the business we are reserving. We suggest a range of analyses and activities for doing this.
— Applying our standard actuarial reserving methods more consistently. We identify a list of specific areas where we believe that there is scope for improvement. Also, we believe that the actuarial training syllabus should be extended, and this leads to consideration of whether a more specialised general insurance actuarial qualification is needed.
— Understanding the implications of the underwriting cycle, which, we believe, influences the behaviour of claims development in a way that our reserving models do not currently capture. We suggest what we believe may be the foundations of a potentially more cycle proof methodology, but this is an area which we believe will require much more research.
— Helping actuaries understand how behaviour can affect the reserve estimation process, particularly in the face of uncertainty. We make various suggestions in this area, including helping actuaries manage pressure from third parties.
We are convinced that, for our profession to implement these suggestions, it will require a concerted change management strategy and set of actions to embed changes into the way in which actuaries work. We believe that this will include:
— increasing the level of debate and research in the profession on claims reserving;
— a broader communication programme with the general insurance industry, covering, amongst other things, uncertainty and data quality;
— a sub-group of the GI Board with a specific focus on reserving, responsible for implementing GRIT's recommendations and dealing with new issues as they arise; and
— our profession resolving the conflicting pressures which will arise out of the extra work required for reserving by the GRIT recommendations.
There is one specific item where we have not made a recommendation. It has been suggested to us that many of the standard reserving methods in common use, such as the chain ladder, are not sophisticated, and that more sophisticated mathematical and statistical methods should be a priority. We do not agree with this. Whereas, in the longer term, this might be an important issue for our profession, we believe that the current focus for actuaries should be in the areas set out in this paper, such as understanding the business better.
GRIT believes that the issues which we have identified are important for the future of our profession and the contribution which we can make to the general insurance industry.