Jennifer Silva, MD, is an innovator and entrepreneur with heart — literally.
As a pediatric electrophysiologist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Silva treats children with abnormal heart rhythms. In partnership with her husband, Jonathan Silva, PhD, an associate professor of biomedical engineering at the School of Engineering & Applied Science, she has co-founded a startup that is developing technology to enable doctors to see real-time 3D holograms of the heart during cardiac procedures.
The Silvas have partnered with Microsoft to use the tech giant’s HoloLens headset to create these 3D maps.
She also is the School of Medicine’s inaugural faculty fellow in entrepreneurship. Calling on her own experiences co-founding her company, SentiAR, she provides guidance and advice to colleagues who may be considering their own startup ventures.
In a Washington People profile, Silva talks about the support she received from the Office of Technology Management at WashU, offers advice to others considering entrepreneurship and shares some of the challenges she faces being female in a male-dominated tech-startup culture.
