Johnson and Johnson Medical Device Division (JJMDC) has partnered with Microsoft. The aim of the tie-up is to improve therapy options by connecting networked devices with the medical Internet of Things (IoMT).
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New opportunities through digitization
Johnson and Johnson believes that the advance of digitalization will lead to dramatic upheavals in the medical field. In particular, developments in the IoT segment have the potential to fundamentally change everything that has gone before. JJMDC is also preparing to change its own corporate structures in the long term through its connection to Microsoft. From the management side, the company plans to develop from a device company into a technology group.
Isolated solutions hamper IoT
So far, the medical IoT (ioMT), similar to other Internet of Things application areas, has been suffering from a lack of coordination of its data volumes. Many devices and solutions separately produce ever-increasing huge mountains of value. But only very few of them professionally link them together in order to extract useful information from them for many. At the same time, it is also less and less possible in most cases to ensure data protection or the security of critical infrastructures.
Clouds for better data management
Clouds can provide useful assistance in this regard. In most cases, they provide the necessary tools to not only adequately record, standardize and analyze the generated data, but also to distribute it again as required. They can also automatically adapt to changing legal or economic parameters much more quickly and efficiently.
JJMDC: Technology innovation for the future of medicine
That’s why JJMDC has partnered with Microsoft. The 25 billion medical company has had its own IoT hub for five years. However, one was not able to adequately handle the multitude of different data here. The disparate nature and real-time values of sensors attached to patients or network-connected smart medical devices have so far prevented fruitful evaluations.
Microsoft solutions for the 365 degree project
To resolve this problematic situation, JJMDC decided to implement several Microsoft solutions at once for its multi-year project. In addition to MS 365, Dynamics 365, Azure IoT Hub and Azure AI, the package also includes the Azure Health Connector and Azure Cloud for Healthcare. They are all intended to lay the foundation for an entirely new technology architecture that enables all JJMDC devices to interact with each other.
A platform for everyday medical practice
The end result should be a platform that gives medical staff more tools to do their jobs than before. Surgeons, for example, will not only be able to get a more accurate overview of how their patients are doing via a dashboard. Among other things, the technology can provide three-dimensional models of organs, such as images of lungs. The solution is also expected to provide surgeons with suggestions for more efficient treatment methods.
Predictions based on previous data about expected consequences of interventions can also be generated with this. But other medical groups such as nurses, caregivers or physiotherapists are also likely to benefit in the future from comprehensive medical history data and individually designed therapy options.
