Johnson and Johnson, Mercy to work on medical device project

Mercy is working with Johnson and Johnson Medical Device Companies to enable it to use Mercy’s data platform to track and evaluate the performance of a wide range of medical devices.

Mercy’s information systems will provide the basis for real-world data on patient safety and device design concerns, the organizations say.

The arrangement is the second such agreement for the St. Louis-based system and Mercy Technology Services, its IT subsidiary. Earlier this year, Mercy agreed with Medtronic to jointly establish a new data sharing and analysis network that helps gather clinical evidence for medical device innovation and patient access.

With both Johnson and Johnson and Medtronic, Mercy Technology Services will work to co-develop new ways to answer questions about medical device safety and patient outcomes through access to valuable clinical information captured during routine patient care at Mercy facilities.



Mercy has built its medical device database over several years, with the intent of using it to ensure that medical devices work as advertised for its patients.

“We began this project to make sure the devices Mercy uses work for patients,” says Joseph Drozda, MD, Mercy’s director of outcomes research and pioneer in using unique device identifiers for tracking implanted medical devices, such as coronary stents, pacemakers and more.

“With more than 8,000 new medical devices entering the market each year, it’s critical that we find better ways to evaluate their performance,” Drozda adds. The Johnson and Johnson subsidiary will use Mercy’s data infrastructure to inform and improve regulatory decision making and health outcomes for medical devices.

Also See: 7 challenges medical devices pose to providers

Mercy installed its Epic electronic health records system more than a decade ago, and over time, the integrated delivery system has accumulated millions of data points in longitudinal patient records, with more data accessible from fields, and with more data viewable in physician notes thanks to the use of natural language processing capabilities to extract and measure it.

Mercy operates more than 40 acute care and specialty hospitals, 800 physician practices and outpatient facilities in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. It also is a participant in The BUILD Initiative, which aims to include unique device identifiers into longitudinal data for medical device evaluation. It’s organized through the Medical Device Epidemiology Network.