Enhancing Decision Making within the Life Sciences through the use of Semantic Technologies

Bringing new drugs to market is hard. It requires understanding how novel compounds will influence disease across heterogeneous populations. It also requires the demonstration of comparative effectiveness of therapies, the minimization of safety related risk, and meeting global regulatory requirements. In order to spur innovation, companies are exploring the adoption of new business models, which include bringing fresh ideas into organizations through collaboration, and enhancing product development through tightening the connection between drug discovery and the clinical environment. This presentation will describe how Semantic Web technologies can benefit companies in light of new business models, and will provide examples as to how Semantic Web technology is currently being used within Johnson and Johnson.

About Susie Stephens

Susie Stephens is Director of Biomedical Informatics, Pharmaceutical R&D, Johnson and Johnson, where she leads biomedical and translational informatics programs, and uses her expertise in open innovation to connect internal informatics efforts to a broad network of university, government, and industrial research. Prior to joining J&J, Susie worked for Eli Lilly where she was Principal Research Scientist for Open Innovation. She has also worked for Oracle where she created and guided the implementation of their product development strategy for the database for the life sciences, and Sun Microsystems where she was Global Life Sciences Market Segment Manager. She is co-chair of W3C's Semantic Web for Health Care and Life Sciences Interest Group. Susie has a Ph.D. in Physiology from the University of Exeter, UK, and post-doctoral experience in Molecular Biology from the University of Manchester, UK.