March 24, 2016

 

Ben Weigand
Disease Interception Accelerator
Janssen, Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson
1000 U. S. Highway 202
Raritan, NJ 08869

 

RE: “Moving from disease care to health care”

 

Dear Mr. Weigand,

I am writing this letter today to applaud Johnson & Johnson’s work on the “Disease Interception Accelerator”:

“We’ve really been trying to introduce a new paradigm,” the J&J project head, Ben Wiegand, told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview. “We’re moving from disease care to health care.”

 

That’s the most exciting sentence I’ve read in a long time, and learning all the information in the article spurred me to write this letter.

 

Please understand that I’m not involved in healthcare in any way – I’m not a doctor. I barely go to the doctor. I’m just an average civilian. I’m not battling a disease, and overall my family and extended family enjoy remarkably good health.

 

My eyes were opened to the whole idea of what healthcare’s current paradigm was a couple of years ago when I attended a public lecture here in Park City by Dr. Larry Smarr of Qualcomm Lab at UC San Diego. He had some remarkable stories about his own healthcare experience with doctors wanting to treat full-blown symptoms rather than predictive data. He painted a picture for the audience of a future where doctors’ actions were driven by data before symptoms appeared. This was a fascinating talk but seemed like a far-off fantasy.

 

I have thought of it often since hearing Dr. Smarr speak, and now here is an article about Johnson & Johnson actually stepping up and doing something about it. Bravo! That’s exactly that kind of benevolent leadership role that huge companies can take and should take. Of course there’s probably huge profits ahead for J&J as a result of this work, but in my view it’s better to make profits from keeping people healthy than from treating them after they’re already sick.

 

Thanks for all you do, and I’ll be paying attention going forward as you meet with success. These kinds of stories are the important things in the news that we all need to hear more about.

 

Sincerely,

Robin Whitney
Park City, UT

robin@oneletteraday.net
Never underestimate the difference you can make.