A 35-year-old executive at health insurer Anthem was diagnosed with a kidney tumor 18 months ago. She told us how that's changed her approach to her work.

• Mariya Filipova, 35, is Anthem's vice president of innovation.
• About 18 months ago, Filipova's life took an unexpected turn when she was diagnosed with a kidney tumor. Since being treated, recovering, and returning to work, she's able to bring the perspective she had as a patient to her role.
• In meetings, she said she often asks the question: "What's in it for the patient?"
• Filipova is one of Business Insider's 30 leaders under 40 transforming the future of healthcare. Read the full list here.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Mariya Filipova, 35, is the vice president of innovation at health insurer Anthem, where she's able to bring her experience as a patient to the industry.

Filipova began her career in finance, working on credit research at Barclays in London through the financial crisis. She later went on to work as a consultant at Deloitte, where she worked with other regulated industries like healthcare.

About 18 months ago, Filipova's life took an unexpected turn when she was diagnosed with a kidney tumor.

"I learned more about healthcare in my experience in 18 months as a patient than my entire decade as an adviser," Filipova said.

When Filipova was treated, recovered, and ready to go back to work, she made the move over to Anthem, where she joined as the vice president of innovation at the health insurer. In her role, she's able to bring the perspective she had as a patient to her work. For her work, Business Insider named Filipova to Business Insider's list of 30 healthcare leaders under 40 transforming the industry.

Now, in meetings, she said she often asks the question: "What's in it for the patient? What's in it for me as the patient?"

On the innovation team, she helps look for new investments. Her team also helps other parts of the organization with digital projects, such as predicting if a member might call about a problem and proactively reaching out instead. They also collaborate with other organizations to pin down how the healthcare industry can use new technologies like blockchain.

Working with innovative new ideas, it's easy to get excited about a new technology or project that seems like it'll change everything.

"It's very easy to get lost in the hype of technology or large scale transformation," Filipova said. "But at the end of the day, a patient doesn't care if we're solving their problem with blockchain or Excel sheets."

Instead, they're thinking about whether or not their problem is getting solved and if that's done in an easy way, she said.