Alaap Shah, an Associate in the Health Care and Life Sciences practice, in the Washington, DC, office, wrote an article titled "Use of ‘Predictive Coding' to Limit Cost and Improve Efficiency in Healthcare E-Discovery: The Light Is Green, but Proceed with Caution."
Following is an excerpt (see below to download the full article in PDF format):
The viability of "predictive coding" as a cutting-edge option to conduct more efficient and cost-effective pre-production document review in healthcare litigation and government investigations remains an open question. Presently, the predominant approach involves employing keyword searching of various complexities. While keyword searching methods have been a dramatic improvement over exhaustive manual review of hardcopy documents, electronically stored information (ESI) culled from a keyword search still requires some level of linear review, albeit in digital format with key terms flagged to facilitate issue-spotting and privilege determinations. The more cutting-edge technology that claims to be a paradigm shift away from traditional linear document review is predictive coding. Predictive coding promises to make document review dramatically more efficient and cost effective. However, as with adoption of any new e-discovery technology, the courts, and thus counsel, should proceed cautiously when considering employing predictive coding.
Reprinted with permission from AHLA.
