The challenges healthcare systems face around the world continue to grow in size and complexity, not least since the pandemic. As a champion of global health equity, rethinking healthcare and supporting people who want to make a real difference in their communities and bring about change is a core priority for Johnson & Johnson.
To that end, in mid-May, the Johnson & Johnson Center for Health Worker Innovation (the Center) welcomes a new cohort of healthcare changemakers setting out together with practitioners from the School of System Change at the Basecamp for Health System Transformation to tackle the challenges of their individual work and drive transformation in healthcare.
Piloted in 2021 with support from Johnson & Johnson Foundation, the program was developed on a shared belief in the potential power of system change leadership. Two years later, a new set of motivated thought leaders are once again ready to tackle concrete challenges together and start this collaborative learning journey.
This year Basecamp brings together people from Denmark to Zambia and from Pakistan to Australia. They work in very different organizations and disciplines. As diverse as the corners of the world the participants come from and as diverse as the organizations or fields they work in around healthcare, one thing runs through like a common thread—the need for change and their willingness to make a difference. They are motivated by a common goal to reimagine health systems which focus on resilience instead of disease at the individual, community and systems levels, with equitable access to health for all.
The health innovators, social entrepreneurs and change leaders participating in the program embody their respective experiences, ways of working, operating conditions and their individual attitudes. Each participant will bring a systemic challenge that they use as an active project where they can start to implement the thinking, tools and frameworks that they learn throughout the course. Throughout the six-month learning journey, they will be guided by world-class practitioners from various disciplines as they navigate the complex challenges, map and diagnose systems, and engage others with far-reaching change processes.
“At the Center, we see our role as a catalyst for change,” says Marion Birnstill, Senior Partnership Manager, Johnson & Johnson Global Community Impact, EMEA. “We believe frontline health workers are central to the future of health. Through Basecamp, we are aspiring to examine how health systems can be grounded in the front line for a stronger systemic shift towards a new model of resilient healthcare that is accessible for everyone.“
Last year’s Basecamp participant Ombretta Baggio, Senior Advisor, Community engagement and accountability at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), summarizes her learning journey in a blog: “Today, more than ever, we acknowledge the need for a system change. A shift is needed from disease-centric to resilience-centric thinking. There is a renewed willingness to invest into people centered community health systems to achieving health resilience.”