Studying trends in mortality and morbidity has been at the core of traditional actuarial science since its beginnings. In recent times, the United Kingdom Profession has contributed to such studies in a number of different ways:

(1) through the work of the Government Actuary's Department on the analysis of national data;

(2) through the work of the Continuous Mortality Investigation Bureau on the analysis and graduation of insured lives data;

(3) through the work of various committees established by the Profession, e.g. the Critical Illness Trends Working Party; and

(4) through the work of individual members, or small groups of members, e.g. Richards et al. (2005).

This paper summarises the research resulting from two initiatives by the Profession designed to help actuaries and others to gain a better understanding of trends in morbidity and mortality: the Actuaries Panel on Medical Advances (APMA); and the Mortality Scoping Project.