Why Copernicus? More than 500 years ago, Nicolaus Copernicus proved something that turned the world upside down. He showed that the Earth is not the centre of our solar system, but the Sun. A revolutionary thought that changed forever how people saw the world.
That same spirit inspires us today, but now in healthcare. It is not the systems, the technology or the institutions that take centre stage, but the person. Care change is no longer about the patient alone, but is co-created with them. Their voice gives direction and creates solutions that truly make a difference.
Mission Copernicus is a movement and a substantive framework for person-centred information provision in care and wellbeing. It arose from a widely shared realisation: the current system fails to adequately place people at the centre. Not through unwillingness, but through structural causes. Systems are fragmented. Interests diverge. Citizens and professionals have too little say in the digital infrastructure that shapes their lives and work.
Mission Copernicus advocates for a fundamental shift: a digital infrastructure that is carried by people. This requires not just isolated participation initiatives, but a different way of organising: different decision-making, different say, different responsibilities.
Mission Copernicus forms the substantive foundation of CareCodex. The vision, values and principles developed through this process are the basis of everything we do.
Mission Copernicus was not conceived at a desk. It emerged through collaboration with a broad and diverse group of people who all saw the same thing: digital care connects too little with the people it is meant to serve.
On behalf of the Dutch ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, citizens, healthcare professionals, policymakers and lived experience experts came together. Combined, over 500 years of experience in the care sector, from both system knowledge and lived experience. In multiple interactive sessions, they shared challenges, envisioned a better future and worked towards concrete tools for change.
What marked these sessions was energy and a shared conviction: fundamental change is possible, but only if it is carried by all those involved. The outcomes are not a theoretical plan. It is a shared blueprint of what is needed.
The four core values of Mission Copernicus are not abstract ideals. They help to make sharp choices in practice when designing, making decisions and evaluating.
Care is about contact, trust and proximity. Digital solutions must strengthen that relationship. Every innovation starts with the question: does this help the connection between people? Technology facilitates the conversation, it does not replace it. And a personal conversation is never replaced by a digital alternative unless necessary.
Rules and standards are useful, but the situation of a person comes first. Every person is different, every moment is different. A professional must always be able to deviate if the situation calls for it. Technology must be flexible enough for that.
Digital care is never finished. What works today can be different tomorrow. Reflection and adjustment are a fixed part of every project, not an exception. Mistakes are learning moments. And decisions are never final if practice shows otherwise.
Citizens and professionals are not a sounding board, they are co-designers. This means a clear role in decision-making, sufficient time and resources to fulfil that role, and feedback on what has been done with their input. Without that, participation is a formality.
Good values are a start. But they only really make a difference when they are embedded in how decisions are made. Governance means: who decides what, on the basis of what information and with what responsibility. Mission Copernicus uses four principles that form the basis for this.
End users have a permanent role in all stages of development and decision-making. With a clear mandate and the resources to make that mandate work.
What a system must be able to do is determined by the people who work with it. How that is built technically is a separate question that comes after. This separation is crucial: if technicians also determine what is needed, the perspective of the end user disappears.
Whoever is responsible for a system or standard must be able to carry that responsibility on the basis of practical knowledge. Custodianship is not an administrative role. It requires involvement in what happens in daily work.
You do not organise a say with a single meeting. It requires fixed structures, recurring moments and clear agreements. This turns participation into a normal way of working.
The vision and recommendations are worked out in two public documents. The recommendations report contains the rationale for the vision, governance principles and concrete recommendations to the ministry and the field. The guide is the practical translation: formats, tools and working methods to structurally embed the voice of end users in projects, standards and programmes.
Mission Copernicus is a movement for human-centred information provision in care and wellbeing. Its starting point is that digital systems and data exchange are still too often developed without giving real influence to the people they are meant to serve. Mission Copernicus advocates a fundamental shift: no longer infrastructure built around people, but infrastructure carried by people. That requires new ground rules for decision-making, mandate and responsibility. Mission Copernicus is an initiative of CareCodex and was co-created on behalf of the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, together with more than one hundred citizens, care professionals, policymakers and experts by experience.
Just as Copernicus showed in the sixteenth century that the Earth is not the centre of our solar system, Mission Copernicus calls for a similar shift in care. The centre is not technology or the system, but the person. This paradigm shift is not a technical tweak, but a fundamental reorientation on who should actually be in charge.
Mission Copernicus is for everyone involved in developing, managing or using digital information systems in care and wellbeing. This includes care professionals, patient and client organisations, policymakers, software suppliers and funders. The movement is aimed especially at parties that influence how digital data exchange is organised and that are willing to give end users a structural role in that process.
An end-user mandate means that people who work daily with digital care systems, or are directly affected by them, are not only consulted but have formal influence in decision-making. They are authorised to speak for a broader constituency, make agreements and test choices. That is what distinguishes a mandate from non-binding participation: it is real authority, embedded in the governance of a project, standard or programme. End users determine what is needed and how it should work in practice. Technical implementation follows afterwards, in service of that functional need. We call this working above the hood.
That depends on your organisation's role. For most organisations, the practical guide is the best starting point: it offers concrete tools to structurally embed end-user participation in your own project or programme. If your question is more complex and focused on governance or organisational change, you can also contact CareCodex directly.
Are you working on a trajectory in which governance, end-user involvement or networked care play a role? We are happy to think along with you.
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