After nearly a century of naming its Person of the Year each December, Time is adding another prestigious recognition with help from Johnson & Johnson.
J&J and Time are teaming up to honor a Healthcare Champion of the Year, to be chosen by J&J and a panel of industry experts and recognized at Time’s “A Year in TIME” celebration in New York City in December. Nominations for the award opened July 16 and will close August 28.
The branded award will go to someone who is “shaping the future of health,” J&J explained in a press release, spotlighting impact and highlighting “what becomes possible when healthcare professionals are supported and empowered to lead change where it matters most.”
More specifically, the judging panel is looking for someone who demonstrates excellence across three core factors: grit, innovation and care, J&J further laid out on its dedicated Healthcare Champion of the Year website.
The nominees should have proven “leadership, resilience and determination” in chasing solutions to complex health challenges and be able to advance care through new, fresh approaches, system improvement and otherwise “accelerating progress” for patients or communities. In addition, the healthcare champion must hold compassion and a deep commitment to patients.
“Healthcare professionals bring skill, compassion and resolve to some of the most important moments in people’s lives,” J&J’s EVP of global corporate affairs Vanessa Broadhurst elaborated in the release. “With the Healthcare Champion of the Year Award, we proudly recognize those whose compassion, innovation, and grit are transforming patient care today and building a healthier tomorrow.”
The nomination pool is open to healthcare professionals across roles, including physicians, nurses, surgeons and the like who are currently employed in the U.S. and actively involved in clinical care or care delivery. J&J employees are excluded from nominations, as are Time employees and their immediate family members. People can nominate themselves or someone else, with the individual's consent, and the application should focus on written responses that include examples of grit, innovation or care that have led to tangible results or outcomes.
In their applications, prospective nominees are asked to explain “why this work matters now.” As J&J noted in its release, healthcare workers are navigating some of the “most consequential moments in healthcare,” making strong leadership at strained health systems more important than ever.
Time’s historic Person of the Year award most often goes to political figures or other major stewards of culture, with the most recent healthcare-related winner emerging in 2014 with the “Ebola fighters” of the global epidemic that year.
However, biopharma products regularly earn recognition on Time’s annual “Best Inventions” list. The 2025 honorees included Ars Pharma’s epinephrine nasal spray Neffy; Eisai and Biogen’s Iqlik autoinjector, which delivers subcutaneous maintenance doses of Leqembi; Gilead’s twice-yearly HIV PrEP med Yeztugo; and Vertex’s nonopioid pain drug Journavx.
J&J, meanwhile, looks to empower nurses and community health workers through its J&J CareCommunity social impact platform, which focuses on “closing the gap between communities and care.” Over the past three years, the company has reached 2.3 million healthcare workers through these efforts, which include collaborations with several advocacy and service groups such as the Global Surgery Foundation, Lions Club International Foundation and more.