Nirinjan Yee is founder and CEO of BreathResearch, which developed a breathing pattern optimization application to help patients track their breathing patterns. Her profile was most read among MM&M‘s Top 40 Healthcare Transformers in 2016. Here, she talks about being a female entrepreneur.

What’s the best and/or worst part of your job?

The best part is creating new cutting edge technologies to improve respiratory health and wellness worldwide. I love learning, discovering, innovating, and creating new tools that can help people.

The worst is running a self-funded startup is not easy, and it requires very long hours and lots of multitasking while staying focused on a vision.

What’s the view like from your office/work area?

I have a window that looks outdoors onto a patio with trees and the sky in the background. I find that it’s essential to step outside often, to take short breaks to refresh my mind and body. This really helps me maintain perspective to be a good leader and be truly productive.

See also: MM&M launches search for 2017 Healthcare Transformers

What was your greatest professional challenge?

That was starting a health technology company as a female entrepreneur.

Where will you be in five years?

I think BreathResearch will experience high growth over the next five years. We have had a long incubation period, and now our technology and the market are ripe.

What has changed since you were named one of MM&M‘s Top 40 Healthcare Transformers in 2016?

We have been contacted by companies interested in respiratory remote monitoring and we are continuing to explore those opportunities.

We have made many advances in breath acoustic detection and analysis and are getting a minimum viable product ready to test with different consumer and patient populations.

In addition, we are embarking on a longitudinal lung health study with the Mayo Clinic to investigate the impact of genetics, environment, and lifestyle on the health of our lungs.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

From the April 01, 2017 Issue of MM+M - Medical Marketing and Media