In this interview, Dr. Dorian Deshauer chats about the history of suicide risk assessment for insurance companies. In the past, the process included a group of physicians but over time physicians got replaced by a more cost-effective process called automated underwriting. He also explains how the first Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) influenced risk assessment.Dr. Dorian Deshauer is a psychiatrist and assistant professor at the University of Toronto. He is also an associate editor for CMAJ but was not involved in the decision-making process for this article.His Medicine and Society article is titled “Suicide risk: automated underwriting versus medical experts.” The article is published in CMAJ: www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.181058-----------------------------------Subscribe to CMAJ Podcasts on Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Overcast, Instacast, or your favourite aggregator. You can also follow us directly on our SoundCloud page or you can visit www.cmaj.ca/page/multimedia/podcasts.

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Assessing suicide risk for insurance