Advancing Health Equity QuickFire Challenge

OVERVIEW

In 2021, Janssen’s Population Health Research team and Johnson & Johnson Innovation launched the Decoding Disparities QuickFire Challenge to inspire and advance data-driven methodologies or technologies with the potential to better detect, understand, or reduce health inequities.

To continue making progress in reducing healthcare inequities deeply rooted in our society, actionable solutions must emerge from this information. Although population health is effective in identifying at-risk populations and helping to close gaps in care,¹ current research often focuses more on characterizing the problem than on translating research into real-world solutions.² Advancing the trajectory of population health research requires moving from detection to the design and implementation of interventions to reduce or eliminate healthcare inequities.²

To that end, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, in collaboration with the Population Health Research team at Janssen Scientific Affairs, LLC, is proud to launch the Advancing Health Equity QuickFire Challenge. Innovators are invited to submit potentially ground-breaking solutions that could advance the trajectory of population health research from basic detection to the design and implementation of interventions aiming to reduce healthcare inequities.

The innovator(s) with the best potential solution can receive grant funding from a total pool of $400,000, access to the global Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JLABS (JLABS) network and mentorship from experts at the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies (Johnson & Johnson).*

Why this challenge matters to us

No single organization can solve for deeply rooted health inequities. However, as a global healthcare leader, Johnson & Johnson’s goal is to ignite, empower and amplify innovative potential solutions that aim to solve for health inequities.

Through Our Race to Health Equity platform and Healthy Communities pillar, Johnson & Johnson is joining the race by focusing on reducing the racial health gap and embedding health equity across our business processes and practices, including developing human capital, investing in more inclusive research and innovation, and supporting advocacy efforts that address the most significant health disparity challenges. By working together and investing in culturally competent community care models, we aim to reduce health disparities and improve health outcomes for BIPOC communities.

What we’re looking for

We encourage US-based innovators to submit potentially groundbreaking solutions that could advance the trajectory of population health research from basic detection to the design and implementation of interventions aiming to reduce healthcare inequities. We are interested in potential solutions aligned to the areas of strategic focus and expertise in Oncology of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson (Janssen), specifically:

• Lung cancer
• Multiple myeloma
• Prostate cancer

Criteria

We are seeking potential solutions aiming to reduce health inequities for communities that have been historically marginalized, utilizing criteria such as:

• Developing appropriate intervention strategies, especially in community-based settings
• Evaluating the performance of an intervention with appropriate evaluation techniques, and
• Determining if a strategy for advancing health equity is ready for implementation and translation/scaling into routine care settings

Awards

• Grant funding from a total pool of $400,000
• Access to the global Johnson & Johnson Innovation - JLABS network
• Mentorship from experts across the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies*