Health data science revolution in Africa: potential for addressing the myriad health challenges

Africa carries a disproportionate share of the global burden of disease. The potential for data science to spur health discoveries and catalyze innovation is enormous, offering new opportunities for Africa to circumvent its complex health challenges. This commentary intends to provide actionable recommendations to scientists, communities, and development partners, including science funders, governments, and private sectors, on what needs to be done on the African continent to realize this potential, building on a recent activity harnessing the expertise of African data scientists towards a collection of papers to be published across the Nature portfolio journals.