Data in Action: How African Innovators are Leveraging Data to Transform Healthcare

This summer, from May to July 2025, H2i launched the Big Data Series, a virtual educational initiative designed to empower founders of the African Innovation Cohort 2024 across the continent.

Our research revealed a clear trend: many emerging ventures are data-driven, yet they struggle to manage, secure, and integrate data effectively.

To tackle these challenges, H2i developed a three-part virtual series addressing six critical healthcare big data issues, including data quality and integration, privacy and security, standardization, storage and transfers, structure, and scalability. Each session combined expert insights with interactive discussions, giving founders practical tools to turn data into meaningful, actionable impact.

The three sessions included:

• Impact of Big Data on Entrepreneurial Decision-Making – Dr. Kamran Khan, Founder & CEO of BlueDot
• Challenges in Data Security and Privacy for Entrepreneurs – Balaji Gopalan, Co-Founder & Former CEO of MedStack
• Leveraging Big Data for Healthcare Access in Developing Countries – Tatenda Duncan Kavu, Postdoctoral Research Scientist of African Population & Health Research Centre

Learn how three of our African ventures applied insights from the series to drive impact.

Neosave: Using Secure Data to Save Newborn Lives

For Nura Izath, Founder and CEO of Neosave Technologies, the series was more than a learning opportunity, it was a moment of clarity. Neosave tackles a pressing issue in Uganda and across Africa: preventable newborn deaths caused by delayed detection of complications.

Traditional monitoring tools are intermittent, and overstretched healthcare staff often miss early warning signs. Neosave’s wearable device, Autothermo, continuously tracks newborn vital signs and sends real-time alerts to healthcare providers.

“The biggest benefit I gained from the sessions was learning how to transform raw data into insights that not only guide innovation but also shape policy decisions in healthcare,” Nura shared. By analyzing temperature patterns collected through Autothermo, Neosave identifies critical periods of instability, informing healthcare training and device improvements.

The virtual sessions, particularly the discussion on data privacy and security, reshaped Nura’s approach. Autothermo now incorporates stronger consent processes and anonymization techniques, ensuring that data from hospitals, caregivers, and providers is responsibly managed. Looking ahead, Neosave plans to link device data with community health records to flag risks before emergencies occur, equipping caregivers to act faster, saving newborn lives, and strengthening community health resilience.

Empowering Individuals Through Data: UzimaNexus

Alvin Masse, CTO of UzimaNexus, joined the sessions eager to refine the company’s approach to healthcare integration. UzimaNexus combines AI, blockchain, and NFC technology to streamline African healthcare systems, tackling issues like repeated tests, lost patient records, and delayed treatments. Patients access secure, portable health histories while providers benefit from AI-powered workflow automation.

Alvin reflects, “One powerful insight was that big data should not only serve institutions but must also empower the individual.” This insight influenced UzimaNexus’s system design. Patients now hold more control over their health data through decentralized identity and verifiable credentials, while aggregated insights inform healthcare planning and resource allocation.

Through the series, UzimaNexus refined its blockchain-based consent management and is scaling to capture longitudinal health records across clinics, labs, and pharmacies. By analyzing these records, the venture can predict community-level risks for conditions like cancer and hypertension, enabling earlier interventions. Patients share anonymized data and are rewarded with UziCoin, making ethical data sharing sustainable and impactful.

Lima Technologies: Using Data to Reduce Food Loss and Improve Nutrition

Peter Musoki, CTO of Lima Technologies, saw the series as a lens to expand the reach of his agritech venture. Lima tackles post-harvest food loss in East Africa, focusing on perishable, nutrient-rich crops. Through a data-driven web application, farmers connect with B2B buyers efficiently, reducing spoilage, boosting incomes, and ensuring communities access nutritious foods.

Peter explains, “I gained perspective on how data science and evaluation can be used to measure impact, optimize resource allocation and ensure interventions are both timely and effective in underserved communities.” Building on this insight, Lima analyzed transaction and spoilage data to prioritize highly perishable crops, shortening time-to-market and improving food availability. He also recognized that the same data could inform broader health and development outcomes, by guiding nutrition access, tracking population health trends, and supporting resource allocation in rapidly urbanizing areas.

Inspired by the series, Lima is now implementing a Nutrition Recommendation Engine and a Nutrition Score system. These tools will guide buyers, including schools and hospitals, toward nutrient-dense choices while enabling farmers to showcase their crops’ health benefits. The approach strengthens livelihoods, reduces losses, and directly supports community well-being.

A Series That Connects, Inspires, and Transforms

Across the three sessions, founders engaged in thoughtful dialogue, shared experiences, and explored concrete ways to leverage big data for social impact. The virtual format brought together innovators from across Africa and Canada, creating a space where ideas could turn into action.

The Big Data Series is part of H2i’s broader effort to support innovation hubs across Africa, helping ventures grow in the medical health space, particularly those led by youth and women. By focusing on the people behind the technology, the series highlighted that big data is more than numbers, it drives better health, stronger systems, and lasting community impact.

As these ventures move forward, their work reflects H2i’s mission: equipping innovators to transform insights into meaningful outcomes, and to build a healthier, more equitable Africa. We are grateful to the speakers and all participating ventures for making this series possible.

This program was co-designed and implemented by two University of Toronto groups: the Health Innovation Hub (H2i) and the African Impact Initiative housed at the BRIDGE, under the Africa Health Collaborative in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation.