Vinona Bhatia, MD MPH is a medical advisor for biotech and digital healthcare companies that focus on improving outcomes for cancer patients. She is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, the Medical College of Wisconsin, and the Harvard School of Public Health, and completed her internal medicine training at the University of Pennsylvania, and hematology-oncology training at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

Dr Bhatia spent ten years in direct patient care in oncology at UCSF and Kaiser Permanente, during which time she managed the care of patients with a variety of malignancies, and focused her research on breast cancer in underserved populations, as well as cancers that develop secondary to HIV infection. She spent two years living in Kampala, Uganda where she led the development of a phase III clinical trial for patients with newly diagnosed HIV and Kaposi’s Sarcoma. She also created and launched the first annual Breast and Cervical cancer symposium in Kampala. which included 150 attendees including healthcare workers and cancer survivors.

As part of her goal of expanding access to cancer care, Dr Bhatia then spent five years in medical affairs and product development at Genentech in South San Francisco and Roche in Basel, Switzerland, respectively. In the latter two years, she was Head of Medical Affairs Oncology for the EEMEA region and led the efforts to expand education and access to cancer care in sub Saharan Africa. She spent several months working in Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire, and also visited clinics and hospitals and developed relationships with physicians in Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania, and South Africa.

In 2018, Dr Bhatia transitioned to the digital healthcare space, becoming the Chief Medical Officer at a startup in Paris, Tilak Healthcare, which focused on using mobile medical applications to connect patients with, and provide essential disease follow up information to, their physicians.

Since 2020, Dr Bhatia has succeeded in advisory and medical director roles at startup biotech companies (Silverback Therapeutics and 23andMe) and digital healthcare companies (Biofourmis and Prosoma). She volunteers as a board member and advisor for various organizations that focus on improving access to care in sub-Saharan Africa (Africa Diaspora Network and Illuminaid). She has either lived, worked or traveled in 70 countries. She is an oenophile, a dog lover, and enjoys swimming, tennis, stand-up paddle boarding (SUP), hiking, pilates, yoga and hip hop dance. She founded p4ci.org in order to collaborate on projects with others who are also working to improve outcomes for cancer patients in the US and globally. She has been working to launch an idea called Cancer NaviGo, which would improve transportation and navigation in areas where cancer screening is underutilized and where it is difficult to comply with complicated cancer treatment schedules, for which she has done one reconnaissance trip to the Mississippi Delta region, and is looking for a business partner in this venture.