Cops, Docs, and Code: A Dialogue between Big Data in Health Care and Predictive Policing

38 Pages Posted: 5 Jan 2018 Last revised: 13 Apr 2018

See all articles by I. Glenn Cohen

I. Glenn Cohen

Harvard Law School

Harry Graver

Harvard University, Law School, Students

Date Written: January 2, 2018

Abstract

“Big data” has become the ubiquitous watchword of this decade. Predictive analytics, which is something we want to do with big data -- to use of electronic algorithms to forecast future events in real time. Predictive analytics is interfacing with the law in a myriad of settings: how votes are counted and voter rolls revised, the targeting of taxpayers for auditing, the selection of travelers for more intensive searching, pharmacovigilance, the creation of new drugs and diagnostics, etc.

In this paper, written for the symposium “Future Proofing the Law,” we want to engage in a bit of legal arbitrage; that is, we want to examine which insights from legal analysis of predictive analytics in better-trodden ground — predictive policing — can be useful for understanding relatively newer ground for legal scholars — the use of predictive analytics in health care. To the degree lessons can be learned from this dialogue, we think they go in both directions.

Keywords: big data, predictive analytics, machine learning, predictive policing, health care, privacy, distribution

JEL Classification: I14, I18, I28, K14

Suggested Citation

Cohen, I. Glenn and Graver, Harry, Cops, Docs, and Code: A Dialogue between Big Data in Health Care and Predictive Policing (January 2, 2018). UC Davis Law Review, Vol. 51, No. 437, 2017, Harvard Public Law Working Paper No. 18-09, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3095530

I. Glenn Cohen (Contact Author)

Harvard Law School ( email )

1525 Massachusetts Avenue
Griswold Hall 503
Cambridge, 02138
United States

Harry Graver

Harvard University, Law School, Students ( email )

1563 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

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