MediSensonic: needle-free against diabetes and high blood pressure

A wristband that measures blood glucose levels without a needle. Or a blood pressure sensor that works without a cuff. MediSensonic from Poland wants to bring these technologies to patients. The biggest hurdle: having enough resources to make complex medical technology ready for the market. Renata Hawrylik explains how the start-up is continuing despite all the challenges and why technical innovation only makes sense if it improves everyday life in a tangible way.

Where does the idee for your product come from?

Renata Hawrylik: In line with our slogan ‘Medical devices of tomorrow’, our technology is designed to meet people's expectations. We work on projects that make patients' lives easier and more efficient.

The founders of Medisensonic are CEO Robert Gromada and CTO Zenon Szczepaniak. Robert Gromada has been involved with medical companies and has worked on improving healthcare operations as well as innovations in the field. Zenon Szczepaniak, on the other hand, specializes in research on radiolocation and microwave technologies. His research focuses on the application of microwave and radar technologies in the analysis of the properties of various materials, particularly in medical diagnostics (including in-vivo diagnostics).

This combination has led to the design of medical devices using microwaves for diagnostics.

What problem do you want to address with it?

Hawrylik: Our technologies have been developed for the millions of people struggling with lifestyle diseases. Their aim is to improve diagnosis and implement therapies through precise, continuous, real-time measurements.

There are currently more than 800 million people with diabetes worldwide who measure their glucose levels several times a day using painful methods or a sensor inserted under the skin. Our technology, the Glucowave needle-free glucose meter, will allow measurements to be taken without puncturing the skin. The diabetic will wear a small armband with a sensor to continuously monitor their glucose levels. In this way, it will be possible to accurately identify diurnal fluctuations and situations in which sugar spikes occur.

The Touchwave cuffless blood pressure monitor, which we have developed, enables continuous monitoring of blood pressure in a discreet and non-invasive way, as it does not have an inflatable cuff. It is aimed at the 1.6 billion people affected by hypertension and need to monitor this.

The devices are not only for personal use, but also for clinical use, as they can be combined with other devices used in hospital therapy. An example is the combination of a Glucowave blood glucose meter with an insulin pump.

What was the biggest obstacle during the founding of your company?

Hawrylik: Running a start-up involves many difficult decisions. For a long time, the company has struggled financially. Validating and implementing innovative technologies requires a lot of resources, which involves dynamic management.

What was your best decision until now?

Hawrylik: It is important to us that our devices are not only to be innovative, but they are to be usable, intuitive and suitable for both personal and clinical use.

A positive step was the acquisition of public funding for the development of our technology. This allowed us to accelerate the development of the equipment and attract individual investors.

What are your plans for the next two years?

Hawrylik: Over the next two years, we want to take the Glucowave project to the implementation and commercialization stage of the technology.

We would like to complete the certification of the Touchwave blood pressure monitor and move on to selling the technology to serve people.

We have so-called dual-use projects in our portfolio, too. We would like to focus on their development, so that the military technology from these projects can enter civilian use.