During 1997, reassurance company Skandia International will release a new Windows-95 based PC manual for more effective assessment of life and disability insurance risks. The new PC manual comes out first in English; French and Spanish versions will follow in due course.

The manual, entitled Sumit, was produced by the life reassurance division of Skandia International. Around 15 of the roughly 500 reassurance companies in the world market issue manuals for the assessment of life assurance risks. Skandia International is one of these. The manuals are provided to the life assurance companies, who are in contact with the public, to aid them in assessing the lives who apply for policies.
On the basis of statistical information and their own store of experience, life reassurance companies have, over the years, documented their knowledge of how to set premiums for different medical conditions. The manual will assist the underwriter, the person who assesses the risk, in determining how different illnesses affect the premium to be charged.
The new PC manual was inspired by, and created for, modern multimedia technology. The material is presented both with animations and hypertext – highlighted keywords in the text that are linked to more detailed information.
Any user who is at home in the world of Microsoft programs for Windows will be just as much at home in the Skandia manual. It has symbols with explanatory help texts and the user clicks with the mouse to reach different levels of detail and information.
‘Our aim was to create an efficient Windows-based system suitable for underwriters with varying degrees of experience, says Julie Hopkins, Executive Manager, Underwriting & Claims, at Skandia Reassurance (UK).
‘We expect an underwriter to be able to reduce the time needed to process an application by at least 50 percent on changing to our PC manual.’
Sumit is based to a large extent on interactivity, interaction with the user, and it can perform automatic calculations of blood pressure, height and weight.
‘We have made Sumit as flexible and user-friendly as possible. There is a choice of six search paths to information about diagnoses, and clear links between laboratory tests, drugs and diagnoses’, says project leader Roland Stenberg, Skandia International.
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Caption:
The time needed for the assessment of life and disability assurances can be halved with Sumit, a Windows-95 based PC manual from Skandia International. The PC manual replaces an 800-page paper manual in a binder.

For further information:
Julie Hopkins, Executive Manager
Skandia Reassurance (UK) Ltd
Skandia House, Virginia Water
Surrey GU25 4AA
Tel 01344-845282
Fax 01344-845383

Klas Wessberger, IT-Manager, tel +46 8 788 46 64
Skandia International Life Reassurance
S-103 50 STOCKHOLM, Sverige
Tel +46 8 788 45 00
Fax +46 8 85 28 02

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