Third Data Science Symposium of 2021 Updates Firm on Interactive Economic Models for Enhanced Data Collection, Exploration, and Usability

August 3, 2021

In July 2021, a select group of data scientists and collaborating consultants hosted Analysis Group’s third, and final, Data Science Symposium of the summer to update colleagues on tools and innovations applicable to case work. This installment presented several examples of interactive, web-based applications and platforms the firm has developed to enhance the coordination, management, and analysis of very large datasets, and to allow clients to interact with an analysis in real time.

• In an antitrust case, an Analysis Group case team developed a cloud-based, multi-user document management platform to dynamically collect, classify, evaluate, and support claims for damages. Using cutting-edge optical character recognition algorithms, the platform allowed the case team to collect large numbers of unstructured documents submitted by thousands of individuals, and to convert them into structured datasets that could be systematically categorized and analyzed. The platform also created electronic agreements to automate the transfer of claim ownership. In addition to use in class or collective actions, this type of platform can be helpful when collecting and curating data from large numbers of providers, such as in consumer surveys or health care surveys.
• Analysis Group’s Health Care Data Explorer tool is a flexible, user-friendly analytical tool that allows users to combine multiple public government datasets and easily generate summary statistics from Medicaid, Medicare, and Open Payments data. In one False Claims Act case related to drug promotion, the tool gave internal and external users fast insights into prescription drug sales and prescribing trends. The Data Explorer tool can also assist with estimating potential civil exposure.
• The estimation of institutional investor damages related to allegations of material misstatement is typically data- and time-intensive. The estimates may involve separate calculations for hundreds of investors, and damages are calculated differently under Rule 10b-5 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 than they are under Sections 11 and 12 of the Securities Act of 1933. This means different economic models are needed. For such institutional damages cases, Analysis Group created an application to centralize, automate, and expedite the process, regardless of how many scenarios are being processed or how familiar the user is with the calculations.
• Platforms for streamlined, web-based economic modeling were also discussed. The firm has developed a modeling platform that enables internal and external users to rapidly create, modify, navigate, and present economic models with greater ease, while ensuring quality control, version control, and options to export submission-ready models in formats required by government authorities and other decision makers.