Joel Worthington
Founder | Principal, JW Collaborative
Co-Design in Practice: Partnering with Patients and Clinicians to Evolve Behavioral Health Integration
At UChicago Medicine, a new Patient and Family Advisory Council is reshaping how primary care and behavioral health connect with Chicago's South Side community. Invited by Primary Care - Behavioral Health Integration Program leader Dr. Neda Laiteerapong, facilitator Joel Worthington applied a human-centered design approach that went beyond collecting feedback to uncovering lived experiences—what patients and families truly need, and how clinicians can respond. Through structured dialogue, real-time synthesis, and deep collaboration, the team surfaced an inflection point: years of provider-focused engagement had reached their limit, and it was time to complement that work with more direct community connection. This talk explores how a clinician–designer partnership is actively helping an academic medical center move from consultation to co-creation, aligning expertise, empathy, and action in real time.
About Joel
Joel Worthington is a strategic facilitator and human-centered design leader who helps mission-driven organizations build systems and experiences that honor people’s realities and aspirations. As founder of JW Collaborative, he partners with health, civic, and social impact organizations to navigate complexity, align teams, and turn shared vision into action.
Joel has led transformation and experience-design initiatives with organizations including UChicago Medicine, the Medical University of South Carolina, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Lurie Children’s Hospital, and BlueCross BlueShield Association. His work blends empathy with strategic clarity—helping leaders question entrenched norms, center human outcomes, and design with, not for, those most affected by change.
He believes that designing for dignity begins with how we engage: by elevating the voices of those closest to the challenges, creating the conditions for respect and agency, and building alignment around shared purpose.