The DRI Asbestos Medicine conference in Boston, Massachusetts was one of the best. The conference is always attended by a large number of defendants and defense counsel and this time was no exception. There were also many of us in attendance from KCIC and we truly enjoyed getting to see many contacts and making new ones.

One particular highlight of the conference for KCIC was rolling out our new triaging tool. As we mentioned in a prior blog post, KCIC’s new triaging tool is designed to give defendants and their defense counsel an early alert as soon as dangerous cases are identified – perhaps as soon as the case is served or later as new information becomes known. The algorithm to identify these cases is highly customizable to the individual circumstances of the defendant and combines both industry recognized risk factors and ones that are particular to the defendant. The use of this tool will allow defendants to easily track and monitor their most dangerous cases giving them more proactive control, not to mention peace of mind, in the knowledge of what is coming.

We engaged in many conversations about the new tool during the conference and were happy to show it off in demos! It was rewarding to hear the perspectives of defendants and their counsel on how this tool could help them manage the litigation more proactively and helpful to get suggestions for future improvements.

Another highlight was getting to speak on a breakout session about data security and analysis. Not only is this a topic that is dear to my heart given my background in technology and data analysis, but it was also extremely timely. Data security laws and how businesses are looking to comply are extremely hot topics right now. Also, how some foreign countries are looking to set standards and rules around the use of artificial intelligence algorithms to create more transparency to the public, is something that needs to be on anyone’s radar if they are working with AI. Why is this something you should be concerned about? As we have seen in the past, European countries tend to lead the world in the area of data privacy and security (the EU’s recent General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes to mind as an example) so it is possible there may be a new wave of security measures to come. We had a lively discussion within our breakout session about some of these topics, and I hope to continue the conversation.

Overall, the conference was a true success. We appreciate all the law firms and defendants we work with and really enjoy having the time to connect with them on a personal level. Building deep relationships with those we work with is one of the KCIC values I find truly enjoyable. DRI provides a wonderful forum for building these interactions, and I am already looking forward to the next conference!