Natasha Gajewski () is the CEO and founder of Symple Health.

Early life and education

Gajewski was born to Dana Roy and Riaz Hussein Rana. Her father, Rana, was a commercial pilot and later

statistician A statistician is a person who works with Theory, theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private sector, private and public sectors. It is common to combine statistical knowledge with expertise in other subjects, a ...

. Rana immigrated to the United States from Zafar Chowk,

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

, in 1960. Gajewski has one sister, Holly Bossard. Gajewski has a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

in Economics and Statistics from

Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

Career

After being diagnosed in 2010 with the rare condition mixed connective tissue disease (MTCD), Gajewski was told by her physician to keep track of her symptoms between medical appointments. This motivated her to improve health prospects for patients. This led to the idea to create a mobile symptom journal. Gajewski was initially faced with the prohibitive costs of developing a

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a smartphone, phone, tablet computer, tablet, or smartwatch, watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop appli ...

after approaching developers from the United States and India. To evaluate the feasibility and validity of the app, she attended Eric Ries's 2011 Lean startup – San Francisco where her idea was the second-place winner and was voted "most fundable" and "most likely to succeed." In a February 2017 Heart Sisters interview, Gajewksi said of her experience designing a mobile app: She has been described as a "revolutionary" in the engaged patient movement along with Dave deBronkart and Jamie Heywood. In 2014, the Symple App had 60,000 users. It is distributed through the iOS App Store. In 2016, Symple was recommended by a

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

general practitioner A general practitioner (GP) is a doctor who is a Consultant (medicine), consultant in general practice. GPs have distinct expertise and experience in providing whole person medical care, whilst managing the complexity, uncertainty and risk ass ...

, Dr. Golda Parker, for patients to use to create lists of symptoms so they come prepared to appointments. Gajewski's Symple app has been the subject of research in academic journals. A 2017 academic study rated her mobile app as one of the "highest performing apps" for heart failure monitoring. Gajewski provided input on point of care patient decisions in a 2016 study. Danny Gorog of Macworld had positive remarks on the app, stating that it "is a powerful iPhone app that lets users track up to 20 different symptoms at once. It also functions as a health diary, to let you note the things you eat, daily exercise and medications you take."

Advisory boards

Gajewski serves as an Advisor for

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

's Keller Center eLab Summer Accelerator. She is also a member of

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...

and Irvine's Health Data Exploration Project. In December 2011, Gajewski was one of the Princeton alumni and women entrepreneurs and business leaders who served as a panelist for the event entitled "Women in Entrepreneurship" hosted by the Keller Center. The panel explored the underrepresentation of women in

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

and startup ventures to which Gajewski reported, "I just never imagined limitations based on my sex," later remarking, "It just never occurred to me." Gajewski is a faculty member for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation sponsored National Health Care Transparency Summit. Gajewski serves on the Advisory Board of Flip the Clinic, a project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Personal life

Gajewski resides in

Princeton, New Jersey The Municipality of Princeton is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey, Borough of Princeton and Pri ...

. To combat her autoimmune disease, Gajewski practices Zumba. Gajewski's parents later divorced, and her father remarried Jacqueline Nicole Marchal of Paris, through which, Gajewski gained three step-siblings including Christopher Emery. Gajewski's mother remarried jeweler Samuel Kind, through which, she gained two step-siblings, actor and voice actor Richard Kind and Joanne Hinton.

Awards and recognition

* TedMED Frontline scholar * "1 of 10 Innovators to Follow" - Partners HealthCare Center for Connected Health * 2013 Stanford MedX ePatient scholar * Member - Startup Health Showcase, mHealth Summit, Washington, D.C. * Competition winners - Lean startup, Eric Ries, IMVU, and Thomas Eisenmann of the

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...

References

External links

Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gajewski, Natasha Living people Businesspeople from Princeton, New Jersey Rutgers University alumni Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people) Businesspeople in the health care industry Women in medicine American women chief executives American women business executives American people of Pakistani descent 21st-century American women