Gavin Ritchie
IT Director
Gavin spent his previous career in software development and database design in a variety of employed and independent roles. Development activities for Life Insurance systems proved a launching pad to a collaboration with Stephen Richards, and the Longevitas application suite was born. Alongside steering the IT function, Gavin is the primary developer for database, Java and web-related technologies.
Articles written by Gavin Ritchie
Resetting certificates
Web site certification supports the key exchange enabling secure encrypted communication between browser clients and server applications. This is why industry giant Google launched a campaign in 2014 that all web applications should use a browser-recognised certificate authority (CA) and offer encrypted access.
Diabetes in the driving seat?
Those of us with an interest in population mortality find ourselves in proverbially interesting times. Established patterns of accelerating mortality improvements may have ended and we neither know precisely why this may have happened nor what will follow
Senolytics: trials and judgements
In a previous post we considered the advantages of repurposing existing drugs to treat a new condition. The fact such treatments had already undergone safety testing and regulatory approval shortens the usually lengthy journey to the clinic.
Mme Calment's other secret?
Favourite stories can, in the process of retelling, turn into legends. But might it eventually become difficult to distinguish between legend and myth? Indeed, are we longevity watchers about to lose a favourite story? Consider what follows, dear readers, and decide for yourselves...
(GDP)Renewing our mail-list
In common with many other organisations, we are celebrating the arrival of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by renewing our mailing list.
What's in a (file)name?
The upcoming EU General Data Protection Regulation places focus on the potential for personal data exposures to create a risk to the rights of natural persons. The best way to reduce such risk is to minimise the ability to identify individuals from the data you use in your analysis.
Mortalityrating and GDPR
Previously our mortalityrating.com service processed a simple file format that included postcode, gender and date of birth alongside pension amount and commencement date for individuals in an occupational pension scheme. This combination of attributes when taken together is often capable of identifying "natural persons" in the language of the upcoming EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Thymus of the essence?
We've considered cancer and its relationship to aging on a number of previous occasions. Studies published in the British Journal of Cancer in 2011 and 2018 concluded that around 40% of cases are attributable to known modifiable lifestyle and environmental factors, which is a substantial minority.
Solid progress
When we previously discussed the progress of immunotherapy within cancer treatment, some of the most exciting results were in the field of leukaemia and melanoma, with progress in other solid cancers lagging somewhat behind.
Occupational hazard
We previously considered Sir Michael Marmot's landmark Whitehall Studies, which looked at health and mortality outcomes for UK civil servants. Sir Michael continues to research UK mortality, and has recently been drawing attention to the fact that improvements in UK life expectancy appear to be slowing down.