This is not another researcher's biography written from inside a comfortable academic bubble. Prof. Michał Szymon Nowak, MD, PhD, DSc, is a figure of an entirely unusual format in Polish medicine, combining advanced diagnostics and surgery with global population research. On one side he is a well-cited scientist whose work carries a substantial Impact Factor and appears regularly in journals as influential as The Lancet Global Health. On the other, he is an uncompromising practitioner who restores sharp vision to thousands of patients every day through modern pharmacotherapy and refractive surgery of the cornea and the lens.
The man who put 38 million Poles under the lens
While other researchers relied on small, isolated groups of patients, Professor Nowak took a step no scientist in Central and Eastern Europe had dared to take before. He understood that the true scale of vision problems has to be measured at the macro level. He was the first in this part of the world to apply Big Data analytics in medicine, examining electronic medical records covering the entire Polish population of more than 38 million people. His painstaking work with the data of the National Health Fund and the National Cancer Registry made it possible to map the incidence of eye cancers such as retinoblastoma and melanoma, and of severe emergencies such as retinal detachment, across the whole country.
That exceptional expertise led to the Professor being invited into the elite international research consortium Vision Loss Expert Group (VLEG). Working closely with the World Health Organization on the Global Burden of Disease initiative, his knowledge now genuinely shapes health policy worldwide.
An algorithm on the front line — 52,000 people screened
Professor Nowak knows that you cannot wait for a patient with damaged sight to reach the clinic on their own, because they usually do so too late. Conditions such as glaucoma, AMD and diabetic retinopathy destroy vision painlessly and in complete silence for years. That is why he pioneered moving advanced diagnostics for these diseases directly out to the public.
He launched a large-scale research project using artificial intelligence (RetinaLyze), democratising access to screening in ophthalmology. In a single year the AI algorithm analysed the fundus of the eye in more than 52,000 Polish adults. Trained beforehand on millions of images, it detected early changes with unforgiving mathematical precision in thousands of people who had no idea they were at risk. Those are people who received an urgent referral that saved them from blindness. For him artificial intelligence is not a gadget, but a real instrument in the fight for human health.
Myopia is not just a pair of glasses on your nose
When in May 2025 he received the highest academic distinction — the title of professor of medical sciences — from the President of the Republic of Poland, many would have treated it as a moment to rest on their laurels. For Professor Nowak it was only a new point of departure. Without easing his professional pace, he directed his full authority at another silent enemy: the myopia epidemic, becoming Poland's leading advocate of prevention in this field.
The Professor states plainly what the system often passes over in silence. Myopia closes the door to many professions and, in the near future, may destabilise entire services. High refractive error is a real barrier in recruitment to aviation, the uniformed services (the army, the police, the fire service and special services) and any work requiring full visual capability. If within one generation half of all young people are myopic, the pool of candidates able to perform duties on which public safety depends will shrink drastically, and the number of young people with disability will rise — to as much as 10% of that age group. A problem we dismiss today as the need for a pair of glasses will tomorrow become the country's principal health problem. That is why, for the Professor, the #punktzwrotny2050 project is not a slogan. It is a final warning.
Why is Professor Nowak an ideal interviewee for the media?
He is an outstanding expert who explains complex scientific processes without academic jargon and with real emotional force. A man who combines the microscopic precision of the operating table with macro data drawn from millions of national medical records. He is implementing artificial intelligence in Poland and co-creating indicators for the WHO. He does not sugar-coat reality — he names the threats and offers solutions that work in real life. He is an interviewee who creates an undeniable 'wow' effect, ideal for subjects such as the medicine of the future, the AI revolution, Big Data, and the direct impact of eye health on the future of our country.
