Here’s How Johnson & Johnson Is Using Its Predictive Analytics Expertise to Fight COVID-19

As one of the world's biggest pharmaceutical brands, Johnson and Johnson is uniquely placed to deal with the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.

Not only is the pharma giant in the process of developing its own vaccine for the disease, but it has also seen demand increase dramatically for its products which can help people fight its symptoms. Products such as Tylenol which can fight the fever caused by COVID-19 have skyrocketed in demand and global shortages have resulted from this increase.

At this point you may be wondering what all this has to do with field service. Johnson & Johnson has, for many years, been an industry leader in using predictive analytics in its asset management offerings, and has, in more recent times, been turning that expertise towards fighting COVID-19.

Predictive Analytics

Predictive maintenance has been a hot topic in field service and asset management for a few years. IoT-enabled sensors embedded in machines at the individual component level can feed back to centralized server and data science experts and be used to not only detect faults at the early onset stage, but also build predictive models which allow maintenance schedules to be intelligently developed based on real timescales.

Johnson and Johnson is now putting this same data expertise into developing its response to the challenges of the SARS-COV-2 coronavirus pandemic.

"This is an unprecedented pandemic, and there are so many unknowns - the virus is moving quite fast, and it's seemingly unpredictable," said Najat Khan, Chief Data Science Officer and Global Head of R&D Strategy and Operations, Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. "But it's not actually unpredictable. By combining several types of data into an advanced analytical model using new techniques, we are driving insights and leading the way to a deeper understanding of this disease in order to help shape our clinical development program."

First, Johnson and Johnson is using data to track the journey of the pandemic around the world and leveraging that information to make informed predictions about where the next hotspot might spring up. Similar to the kind of visualization that field service providers use for predictive analytics, Johnson and Johnson created a global surveillance dashboard which pulls data by country, state, and county levels, informing data scientists where the need is greatest for pharmaceutical products - including trial vaccines.

The dashboard is able to track the disease on an hourly basis, meaning it is always up to date with the latest information needed to make informed decisions. However, the dashboard is only as effective as the data being fed into it.

"Because it is a challenge to find the right data, we have a team constantly monitoring and scouting reliable data sources across geographic territories," said Xiaoying Wu, Senior Director, Janssen R&D Platform and Privacy, Janssen R&D Data Science. "These data then get curated, ingested and integrated into the surveillance dashboard automatically on a daily basis. This dashboard serves as the single source of truth for disease tracking and forecasting, enabling teams to make data-driven decisions."

Human Field Service

While everyone is at risk from COVID-19 infection, the disease does not have the same effect on everyone it infects. Young people, for example, are less likely to experience the immediate worst symptoms of the disease, but are more likely to experience the debilitating effects of long COVID - while the reverse is true for more elderly sufferers.

Johnson and Johnson is using its data prediction capabilities to learn more about who is most at risk from getting sick and act accordingly. Data is allowing Johnson and Johnson to understand more about the intrinsic and environmental factors which make someone more susceptible to the more severe symptoms of COVID and how different treatment options may impact their potential clinical outcomes.

Finally, Johnson and Johnson is using data to make informed decisions about how best to bring people back into the workplace. Which labs can remain open, how many people is it safe to have on site at one time, as well as configuration and sanitation schedules are all being informed by global data and the expert analysists at Johnson and Johnson.

"We have employees all over the world, so we're taking an individualized approach that's data-driven and evidence-based," says Oren Shur, Senior Director of R&D Strategy and Operations, Janssen R&D.

Final Thoughts

It's really interesting to see a company such as Johnson and Johnson using the capabilities which would normally be used to carry out field services being deployed to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

While asset management at the organizational level will always be the focus of this industry, it can be easy to forget that the one asset we all need to manage better is this planet which we all share.

You can hear Johnson and Johnson's Senior Director, Product Supply Strategy & Management, Sultan Aziz, speak at Field Service Palm Springs 2021, taking place in November at the JW Marriott, Palm Springs, CA.

Download the agenda today for more information and insights.