The AMS year started on the 1st. of February with the Annual General Meeting at 5pm at Lettsom House. The President Dr. Frank Vince gave a short report on the Society’s affairs and the Hon. Treasurer confirmed that the accounts were in good order and Page Wood & Co were re-elected for the coming year as Auditors.
The President announced that, following the ballot, Dr. Kevin Somerville had been elected as the next President of the Society from February 2007.
There followed an address by Professor Jan von Overbeck, MD on:
``Hepatitis C - are we sufficiently vigilant? ``.
Jan von Overbeck is a graduate of the University of Lausanne and specialises in internal medicine and infectious diseases. Until recently he was Chief Medical Officer for Swiss Re Life & Health in Zurich with responsibilities in both the European and Asian market.

On the 31st January UNUM Provident launched a monograph on Disability at the Savoy Hotel, which was very well attended.

On the 10th May there was a joint meeting with a select 74 held at the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff.
The event was entitled:
"Current Views on Aspects of Life and Disability Insurance Medicine"
The Programme started at 9.30am with an introduction by the President Dr. Frank Vince.
The morning session was devoted to Disability, chaired by Professor Mansell Aylward.
Professor Peter Halligan discussed Illness Deception. This was followed by Professor Martin Underwood on Forearm Pain, a part of a research project that had been funded by the AMS.
Dr. John LoCascio came over from the US and discussed Current Concepts in Underwriting Disability and finally Disability Claims Management from Dr. Nigel Dear, who stood in for Dr. Peter Dewiss at short notice.

The afternoon started with a Medical Session chaired by Dr. Frank Vince.
Prognosis of Lipid Control in Insurance Medicine was covered by Dr. Mike Khan. Following this, PSA and Prostatic Diseases- Current Views on Prognosis was expertly discussed by Mr. Senthil Nathan FRCS and before tea ‘Testing for Microalbuminuria as a Routine in Insurance Applicants’ was very comprehensively covered by Professor Sally Marshall.
The last session titled Controversies in Underwriting and chaired by Mr, Jon Parker.
The topics started with Mike Taylor from AXA UK on Experience of Tele-underwriting.
Claims management -When to Approach the Lawyers was succinctly put by Rona Doyle.
The last presentation was from Richard Walsh of the ABI who discussed Handling Medical Data within Companies.
Caroline Froude and her team did a great job in running the registration and keeping track of the large number of delegates.
We are very grateful to Friends Provident, Hanover Re [UK] Ltd, Legal and General, Norwich Union Healthcare and Revios Reinsurance for sponsoring the speakers. Unum Provident was very generous in their support for the whole meeting and we could not have held it at all without the unstinting help from Louise Morris.

In June we welcomed the arrival of the 5th.Edition of Brackenridge’s tome" Medical Selection of Life Risks", edited by Bob Brackenridge, Ross Mackenzie and Richard Croxson. It is still the” Bible" of the medical insurance world!

June also saw the launch of "The Power of Belief", edited by Professor Peter Halligan and Professor Mansell Aylward, published by Oxford University Press and deals with Psychosocial Influence on Illness, Disability and Medicine, held at the Royal Society of Medicine.

The First of November's meeting at Lettsom House was very interesting as Dr. Tim Carter PhD FRCP FFOM Medical Advisor to the Ministry of Transport delivered an address entitled "Impaired Health and Transport Safety-How Good Is The Evidence?". This was followed by a dinner to celebrate the publication of the 5th.Edition of Dr. Brackenridge's Textbook, Medical Selection of Life Risks, with Dr. Brackenridge, Dr. Croxson and as many contributors that could come and included Suzannah Atkins from Palgrave Macmillan, the publishers.

I went with my wife Caroline to Berlin in May as part of the ICLAM Bureau to discuss the details of the next ICLAM meeting to be held at the Berlin Convention Centre on the 6th.to 9th. May 2007, It was very interesting to see how much had changed in the 15 years since my previous trip. Caroline had never been, so we saw a good few museums, the obligatory boat trip which gives a good idea of Berlin and a trip to Sans Souci in Potsdam. We were fortunate in having excellent weather for our stay.
Details of the next congress are on this website under `contacts`.

The 115th. meeting of the American Academy of Insurance Medicine, AAIM, was held in San Antonio, Texas at the Westin La Cantera. The excellent programme and spectacular location was also and a great opportunity to catch up on the history of The Alamo.
The next meeting of AAIM will be in Boston in September next year and details will announced nearer the time.

Raymond Gill FRCP, Editor AMS Bulletin