Africa’s Untapped Health Data: Inside the Mission to Transform Africa’s Health Data Economy with Estelle Dogbo

Episode 178 with Estelle Dogbo, systems strategist, healthcare executive, and founder of BioVana Research. Estelle has spent her career at the intersection of biotechnology, digital health, and pharmaceutical development building adaptive health systems across African markets and beyond. From commercial leadership roles at Sanofi and Roche to co-founding 54gene and Syndicate Bio, Estelle has been a quiet force behind Africa’s genomics and health data infrastructure.

Now, as CEO and Founding Partner of BioVana Research, Estelle is reimagining how African health data is valued, governed, and transformed into powerful R&D assets. BioVana partners with hospitals, universities, and research institutions to bring structure, visibility, and trust to African biobanking ensuring local data is ethically sourced, verifiable, and globally competitive. Their model turns fragmented sample collections into strategic platforms for precision medicine, AI diagnostics, and responsible global collaboration.

In this episode, Estelle shares her bold vision for African data sovereignty, why health systems must be built from the inside out, and how BioVana is helping African institutions shift from being invisible custodians to confident stewards of their own scientific future.

What We Discuss With Estelle

• Why Africa’s vast health datasets have remained invisible in global R&D, and how BioVana is changing that through ethical, locally rooted data governance.
• The critical role of biobanking infrastructure in unlocking breakthroughs in precision medicine, AI diagnostics, and clinical research across the continent.
• How BioVana is helping African hospitals and research institutions move from passive data custodians to active stewards in the global health ecosystem.
• What it means to build health systems “from the inside out” and why imported solutions often fail in high-complexity, low-resource environments.
• The risks of data extraction and decoupling in African research, and how BioVana ensures that local data remains connected to local value.

Did you miss my previous episode where I discuss The Future of Fashion Is African: Building an Ethical Clothing Factory in Rural Kenya? Make sure to check it out!

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Connect with Estelle:
LinkedIn - Estelle Dogbo MSc and BioVana Research

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