I grew up in Chicago, where my mom and dad met. I loved dogs, and they let me get one — a poodle — when I was 9. I had a green Schwinn bike with a basket on the front, and I used to ride around with the dog in the basket.

I attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for a degree in companion-animal biology. During that time, I got an internship at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. I worked in several areas, including the Mammal House, the Lion House and the Reptile House. I got a master’s in animal nutrition, also at Illinois, graduating in 1983, and stayed on there for my Ph.D. in nutritional biochemistry.

Having an assistantship helped pay my way through graduate school, but I received only $300 a month so I also sold hot dogs at a hot-dog hut. When my primary Ph.D. adviser found out, he said it wasn’t a good idea to have an outside job. I told him he’d have to find me more money if he wanted me to quit my hot-dog job, and he did. It was my first business negotiation.

At 24, I became a nutritionist at Iams, the pet food company. I hadn’t been sure that I wanted the job. Iams was relatively small, and some of its competitors had large research facilities. But my adviser raved about the company, and Clay Mathile, its president and owner at the time, interviewed me and said I could build a research facility.

My second day, an architect came to my office and we started designing the animal care center. It was one of the best work experiences I’ve had. I rose to senior vice president for research and development.

Clay sold the business in 1999 to Procter Gamble, and I stayed on for seven years as global vice president for pet health and nutrition. I wanted to work for a small company, and Clay made me another offer. In our global travel, we had seen that animals sometimes eat better than humans. He wanted to take what he had learned about pet food and apply it to human food.

In 2006, Clay hired me to turn his vision into reality, and I became president of the Mathile Institute for the Advancement of Human Nutrition, which helps alleviate world hunger. I still hold that position.

Clay also was an early investor in what would become Riverain, which makes tools for digital image interpretation. There were some issues with the technology, and he asked me to help resolve them. I joined the company as C.E.O., also in 2006. I hired a staff, and we changed the technology and received Food and Drug Administration approval.

Our first product is computer-aided-detection technology for lung cancer that identifies and marks areas in a digital chest X-ray that may be early-stage lung cancer. Our second product is a bone-suppression technology that subtracts the ribs in a digital chest X-ray to allow for a clear image of the soft tissue of the lungs. It enables early diagnosis of small lung nodules and has the potential to detect tuberculosis and other problems. My sister has breast cancer — also a soft tissue cancer — so the technology is personal for me.

We’re in a challenging market because many hospitals are floundering financially and there is limited financing for medical technology. Too often, it’s all about budget approval. If you want to be successful in the health care technology market, you need team members with the passion — and patience — to see their efforts through.

As told to Patricia R. Olsen.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=4b521dd47baf642a1bcd013b54454184