Virtua Health and Medtronic announced on Mar. 16 the launch of Healthy Neighbor, a collaborative program designed to address barriers to healthcare access in Camden, New Jersey. The initiative aims to reach uninsured and underserved residents through community health workers and technology-enabled care.
The program responds to significant disparities in Camden, where nearly one in five residents lacks insurance and life expectancy can differ by up to 16 years within a few miles. Healthy Neighbor seeks to improve health outcomes for vulnerable populations by combining Virtua Health’s local presence with Medtronic LABS’ experience in global community-based care.
Dennis W. Pullin, president and chief executive officer of Virtua Health, said the organization made a strategic decision “to treat community health as a core service line, on par with cardiology or oncology.” Pullin explained that this approach is both a moral imperative and a business strategy aimed at reducing costly emergency care by focusing on prevention. He described how community health workers provide home visits, support for social needs, targeted education, and consistent follow-up: “Our CHWs go out of their way, literally and figuratively, for patients.” One patient credited his CHW with saving his life after receiving urgent care for dangerously high blood pressure.
Geoff Martha of Medtronic LABS said the partnership allowed them to adapt global best practices for use in the United States: “We helped translate global best practices into a U.S. context, proving that tech-enabled care can be both deeply personal and genuinely scalable.” The program uses SPICE, an open-source digital health platform modified for U.S. privacy standards and tailored workflows. Martha added that technology supports but does not replace human relationships: “Technology is the enabler, but people are the core.”
In its first two years, Healthy Neighbor enrolled over 250 individuals with complex medical needs; more than half had multiple chronic conditions or recent emergency room visits. Clinical results include a 15-point average drop in systolic blood pressure among patients with uncontrolled hypertension and an average reduction of 1.2% in HbA1c among those with uncontrolled diabetes.
Virtua Health promotes health equity through programs such as ‘Eat Well’ food access initiatives and pediatric mobile services units according to the official website. The organization operates five hospitals and more than 400 locations across South Jersey according to its official website. Virtua maintains academic ties with Rowan University as well as partnerships with Penn Medicine for cancer and neuroscience services and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for pediatrics according to the official website. Its network includes over 3,000 affiliated doctors according to the official website.
Healthy Neighbor was designed from inception as a scalable model using toolkits covering workflows and protocols so other organizations can adopt similar approaches elsewhere. While broader adoption will require changes such as funding models supporting prevention efforts or policy support for community health workers, organizers say that leaders do not need to wait: “The blueprint is here,” according to Pullin.
Virtua Health aims to deliver comprehensive healthcare services supporting wellness throughout South Jersey according to its official website, extending its reach through various programs beyond hospital walls according to the official website.
