Meet Wismed CEO, Pawel Wisniewski
Wismed CEO, Pawel Wisniewski
As the saying goes, overnight success doesn’t happen overnight. Having started Medical Device Company – Wismed, nearly two decades ago, Polish-born Pawel Wisniewski and CEO has been recognized in Europe with award of funding in the category of Intelligent Development by the EU to foster innovation and research in minimally invasive urology and to expand the company’s product offering.
Being a qualified Medical Doctor and having years of experience as a practicing anesthesiologist in South Africa, using the operating theatre as an observation platform, Pawel is passionate about applying physics principles to complex problems to achieve simple and practical solutions.
“I love to observe in OR. I always watch surgeons at work. When I see problems that surgeons are dealing with it prompts me to look for solutions or alternatives.”
“I started Wismed because I had a few such solutions in my mind, I wanted to see if I can turn them into a product. It was also very attractive to see if I would be able to run a business. It was a challenge and an opportunity.”
Never one to turn away from a challenge, not only was Pawel able to run a business successfully, but he has been designing and developing medical devices according to the highest international and European standards for health, safety, and environmental protection. Wismed is certified to ISO 13485:2016 Quality Management Standard and their products carry a CE marking. As such Pawel was able to secure EU funding for a passion project that is expected to improve the outcome of kidney stone treatment and reduce kidney stone disease recurrence.
“There is an enormous amount of research that goes into medical device development and manufacturing. It is a very complex and highly controlled process. Doctors are not aware of the effort and controls that are vested in manufacturing the devices that they use daily.”
Pawel believes there is a huge disconnect and a need for deeper understanding; medical devices are largely seen as a disposable piece of plastic, but there is an incredible amount of science and complexity applied. “Everything needs to be considered in equal measure from the device functionality, biocompatibility, and safety to how it is stored, packaged, and disposed of,” says Pawel.
“I want people to know that we develop devices with such care and attention to detail as if we, ourselves would be the first patients on whom these devices are used.”
Pawel believes that in the future, minimally invasive surgery will become even less traumatic and more impactful. It will achieve a high level of miniaturization as technologies and materials improve. In addition, there will be use of micro robots equipped with AI.