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 A commercial pilot licence (CPL) is a type of pilot licence that permits the holder to act as a pilot of an aircraft and be paid for their work. Different licenses are issued for the major aircraft categories: airplanes, airships, balloons, glid ...

and later

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

. Rana immigrated to the United States from Zafar Chowk,

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

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

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in Economics and Statistics from

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

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 phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...

after approaching developers from the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. To evaluate the feasibility and validity of the app, she attend

Eric Ries Eric Ries (born September 22, 1978) is an American entrepreneur, blogger, and author of ''The Lean Startup'', a book on the lean startup movement. He is also the author of ''The Startup Way'', a book on modern entrepreneurial management. Early l ...

's 2011

Lean startup Lean startup is a methodology for developing businesses and products that aims to shorten product development cycles and rapidly discover if a proposed business model is viable; this is achieved by adopting a combination of business-hypothesis-dri ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

where her idea was the 2nd-place winner and was voted "most fundable" and "most likely to succeed." In a February 201
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

App Store (iOS) The App Store is an app store platform, developed and maintained by Apple Inc., for mobile apps on its iOS and iPadOS operating systems. The store allows users to browse and download approved apps developed within Apple's iOS Software Deve ...

. In 2016, Symple was recommended by a

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

general practitioner, 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 Clinical point of care (POC) is the point in time when clinicians deliver healthcare products and services to patients at the time of care. Clinical documentation Clinical documentation is a record of the critical thinking and judgment of a health ...

patient decisions in a 2016 study. Danny Gorog of

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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 research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

'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 or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

and

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'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 (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...

and

startup A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...

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 The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is an American philanthropic organization. It is the largest one focused solely on health. Based in Princeton, New Jersey, the foundation focuses on access to health care, public health, health equity, ...

sponsored National Health Care Transparency Summit. Gajewski serves on the Advisory Board of Flip the Clinic, a project of the

Personal life

Gajewski resides in

Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...

. To combat her

autoimmune disease An autoimmune disease is a condition arising from an abnormal immune response to a functioning body part. At least 80 types of autoimmune diseases have been identified, with some evidence suggesting that there may be more than 100 types. Nearly a ...

, 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 Christopher Beauregard Emery (born August 1, 1957) is an American author and former government official. He was a White House Usher during the Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Clinton administrations. Emery later served as the chief informati ...

. 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 Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

MedX ePatient scholar * Member - Startup Health Showcase, mHealth Summit,

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

* Competition winners -

, IMVU, and

Thomas Eisenmann Thomas R. Eisenmann is an American economist and currently the Howard H. Stevenson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Education *1998, D.B.A., Business Policy, Harvard Business School *1983, MBA, Harvard Business ...

of the

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

References

External links

Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gajewski, Natasha Living people People 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