Drugmakers are taking steps to make sure clinical trials include participants from a variety of backgrounds—and they are steadily making progress, as evidenced by new studies of multiple sclerosis and sickle cell disease. Milliman health researchers Ellyn Russo and Chris Page unpack a history of distrust in medical research, the implications of failing to attract diverse study participants, and how simple strategies like rideshare vouchers, childcare, and check-in apps can help expand a study’s reach, so more patients have access to the latest treatments and medical research moves forward.

You can read the episode transcript on our website.

Life insurers have historically invested their portfolios in the relative safety of mortgages and bonds, but economic volatility, sticky inflation, and other headwinds have spurred many insurance companies to diversify into alternatives, a trend explored in a recent Milliman paper. On this episode of Critical Point, three of the paper’s authors discuss two alternative asset classes that are particularly attractive to insurers in today’s market: private equity and real estate. They talk about unexpected assets like student housing and storage facilities, the synergy of private equity firms investing in insurers and vice versa, and why many insurance companies continue to hold commercial real estate despite post-pandemic office vacancies.

You can read the episode transcript on our website.

For decades, companies with traditional pensions have been freezing those plans and replacing them with defined contribution options to help their employees save for retirement. But IBM made headlines when it restored its defined benefit program in early 2024. Three Milliman pension actuaries discuss this choice, new hybrid DB plan designs, and how plan sponsors can avoid the mistakes that led them to close their pension plans in the first place.
You can read the episode transcript on our website.