The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics
Laboratory (APL) has provided solutions to national
security and scientific challenges for more than 75
years. As a university affiliated research center, APL
supports the Department of Defense (DoD) and a
wide array of U.S. government agencies, maintaining
core capabilities underlying missions ranging from
cyber operations to homeland protection and strategic
security, and most recently in the critical mission
area of national health. Our National Health Mission
Area, in partnership with the broader APL enterprise,
is uniquely positioned to revolutionize health through
science and engineering.
CAPABILITIES
APL is leveraging cutting-edge capabilities, drawing
on the full expertise of the Laboratory in the COVID-19
response. Areas of expertise range from systems engineering
to experimental science, including:
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Artificial Intelligence (AI): Applying advanced data
analysis and AI to experimental characterization,
and novel and disparate health surveillance data
within decision support tools.
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Disease Surveillance: Leveraging a greater than
20-year history designing and deploying electronic
disease surveillance capabilities, including
ESSENCE
(Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics) and SAGES (Suite for Automated Global Electronic bioSurveillance), to incorporate nontraditional data sources, track disinformation, and implement mobile data collection. APL public health and data science experts provide core expertise and data analytics and automation leadership on the Johns Hopkins coronavirus global tracking map.
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Rapid Prototyping: Combining research and
development, engineering, and systems integration
expertise with contemporary collaboration methods
to explore solutions for critical medical supplies
and device shortages, addressing design elements
through manufacturing.
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Modeling and Simulation: Developing and applying
models to anticipate disease spread and countermeasure
efficacy, enabling assessment of interventions
and outcomes to inform resource allocation
and course of action development.
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Genomics: Employing genomics capabilities and
custom user-friendly analytic software developed by
APL to monitor viral evolution and spread; promoting
democratizating and capacity building through
training.
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Experimental Characterization: Leveraging biological
research laboratories, aerosol/environmental
facilities, and multidisciplinary expertise for characterization
and evaluation of medical countermeasures,
equipment, and devices.
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Systems Engineering: Applying systems
approaches, including System Dynamics Analysis
and analytic frameworks, to ensure comprehensive
optimization of complex health and response
systems.
RESPONSE
APL is now applying its broad technical expertise to work
alongside military and civilian partners in support of the
COVID-19 response. Efforts include:
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National Response Operations: Enabling national
response through decision support in planning,
operations, and logistics, emphasizing real-time
data analysis, prescriptive modeling, and
forecasting.
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DoD Operation Support: Enhancing real-time
awareness to inform senior-level DoD operations
via application of nontraditional data, analysis, and
modeling and simulation.
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Public Health/Dashboards: Partnering with federal,
state, and local public health officials to process,
understand, acquire, and assess large and disparate
data streams through development and enhancement
of AI-based decision support dashboards and
systems.
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Patient Care/Health System Operations: Applying
systems engineering principles to health systems,
complemented by tactical efforts in rapid equipment
development and prototyping to formulate
solutions to enhance patient outcomes, preparedness,
and response.
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Biological R&D: Developing, evaluating, and deploying
medical countermeasures and next-generation
sequencing technologies, including user-friendly
analytics and training to increase distributed capacity
for real-time outbreak assessment and response.
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Cyber Analysis: Developing and implementing analytical
tools to identify misinformation and influence
confounding response; identifying high-confidence
reporting data; and enabling automation of acquisition
and analysis of diverse health data sources to
facilitate real-time situational awareness, allowing
informed decision-making and targeted resource
allocation for high-risk populations.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
APLPublicAffairs@jhuapl.edu

Download APL COVID-19 Response Activities PDF >>