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Biomedical subjects

H K Kraus

Publications and source records attributed to H K Kraus.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1996

[International developmental trends in life insurance medicine 1971-1995].

This retrospective of the eventful quarter of a century up to 1995 presents in brief sketches an international survey of developments with a bearing on insurance medicine. It identifies principle events in the field of clinical medicine that have had an effect on long-term prognoses and shows how they have been accounted for in the process of rating on the basis of insurance medicine prognoses. It highlights the main aspects of the scenarios from the 1970s down to the early years of the 1990s and illuminates in detail the developments in Germany. Finally, in the chapter "Life insurance medicine in the year 2000", there is a cautious "forecast on our own behalf", which names eleven points of development which contain possible messages for the future. In the final comment, the concern is expressed that life insurers and the insurance industry as a whole have not yet fully recognized the cost-benefit effect of insurance medical officers. A major role is played in this context by the increasingly important ethical guidelines.

Forecasting↗
PubMed1993

[Screening of insurance applicants: experience in international insurance medicine].

Following a brief historical look at international developments in medical examinations of life insurance applicants, the paper goes on to examine the criteria used today for screening in clinical medicine. There are great similarities between the main reasons for screening in clinical medicine and insurance medicine. On the one hand, there is the need to detect a disease early in its history. On the other, the need to identify risk factors. The procedures used by life insurers are also described. The USA is taken as an example to show the direction that international developments are taking. Future aspects are considered with particular regard to future availability of genetic tests. An insurance medical discussion on genetic tests is followed by a description of the debate on the ethics of biotechnology in the Council of Europe and European Parliament. A conceivable scenario is developed which assumes the future availability of genetic test results in doctors' surgeries. The decisive factor here is that the insurer continues to have full knowledge of the applicant's state of health at the time of application. Only by this way can antiselection be avoided. This is followed by a detailed representation of the responsibility that insurance medicine and insurers have in connection with screening modalities. Genetic tests are not used by insurers today. There exists a kind of wait-and-see attitude which amounts to something like a moratorium. The time until further decisions are made should be used to gather further scientific findings and also to correct possible misconceptions at all relevant levels.

Cross-Cultural Comparison↗
PubMed1991

[Possible long-term prognosis in epidemiologically significant virus infections].

The long-range prognosis of viral diseases must be assessed differently according to their geographical occurrence. The genetic disposition, environmental factors and additional infectious diseases play a decisive part here. Vaccinations are the most important measures in the prevention of these infections. The spectrum of possible chemotherapeutic intervention for viral infectious diseases is very small, which usually makes specific treatment impossible. The most important infective viruses epidemiologically, which lead to persistent complications, are discussed in detail as follows: influenza virus, measles virus, human T-cell leukaemia virus, human immuno-deficiency virus, hepatitis B and C virus. In a discussion conclusions are drawn from the virologist's point of view for a possible long-range prognosis, which depends on the one hand on the infective agent and on the other on individual reactivity. The last chapter talks about insurance medical aspects of the most important infective viruses, which have already been discussed virologically. Some scientific developments are shown which could be future solutions of problems in diagnosis and prognosis. Such new developments could help insurance medical officers to important decision parameters for long-range prognosis, which are still largely missing at present.

Cause of Death↗
PubMed1990

[What importance do tumor markers have in life insurance medicine?].

From the whole host of older and new tumour markers a short description is given of the most important in clinical practice. Nowadays no tumour marker fulfills the criteria which must be demanded of a screening test for an unselected population. Owing to insufficient specificity and sensitivity and with the low prevalence of individual tumour diseases in the population, screening tests would lead to an irresponsibly high number of wrong findings, i.e. particularly of false positive results with all the diagnostic consequences while, moreover, because of the number of false negative results nowhere near all tumour diseases would be recognized. The significance of tumour markers in insurance medicine is as in clinical medicine in the supplementing of oncological aftercare programmes. Here they have become an essential part of the parameters to be checked regularly. It must remain open at present whether owing to the development and new discovery of monoclonal tumour antibodies a reassessment will also be possible in insurance medicine.

Biomarkers, Tumor↗