VirtaMed Company Culture

Stefan Tuchschmid received a Master's degree in electrical engineering from the ETH Zurich, Switzerland in 2005. To finance his undergraduate studies, Stefan founded his first and still-existing company netpictures.ch in 2001 when he was 22. In parallel to his PhD thesis "High-fidelity surgical simulator for hysteroscopy" at ETH Zurich, he launched VirtaMed in 2007 to create the most realistic simulators possible. Since then, he built up a dedicated team and shaped VirtaMed to become the technology leader in surgical training. Stefan is winner of the MICCAI Young Scientist Award 2007 and the Swiss Economic Award 2013 in Hightech/Biotech as well as serial-winner of most business plan competitions in Switzerland. As any other true entrepreneur, Stefan is passionate about bringing ideas to life and products to market. Stefan lives in Zurich, Switzerland, is married and fully relies on the smiles of his baby son to bring things into perspective.

Denis built the VirtaMed software team from two people to its current size. This meant both hiring the right people as well as transforming development from agile but unstructured teams and processes to an organization better suited for upscaling. For the first years Denis was the principal developer for all physically-based software simulation, as well as the technical lead and main developer of all HystSim™- and UroSim™-based products. Denis has had a significant share in bringing good research and technology from prototypes to stable products that are used all around the world. He has a PhD from the computer Graphics Laboratory at ETH Zurich, and he is an expert in physically-based simulation, computer graphics and game technology, which represent the foundations of virtual reality surgical simulators. Denis doesn't only push boundaries during his working hours, as his freetime activities include achievements such as crossing Greenland on skis and cycling across the Alps.

Daniel leads our team of hardware engineers and is in charge of system development, covering the whole process from development of new simulators to production and support. He is highly creative when looking for hardware solutions, which is instrumental in building innovative solutions. His detailed know-how of our simulators and his passion about the products help VirtaMed boost current and future projects to the highest possible level. As one of the founders of VirtaMed, Daniel has had his hand in everything hardware-related, ranging from production and shipping to forming the entire team. He has studied at the University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) in Winterthur and was one of the Simulator pioneers at the Computer Vision Lab of ETH Zurich. Daniel is a real people person, and he creates a unique team spirit. He likes to push his own limits by touring with his motorcycle and climbing.

Melanie joined VirtaMed in 2017 where she is responsible for setting the right operational context for the team to excel (i.e. run like a "well-oiled engine”). She is in charge of planning, directing and overseeing VirtaMed's operations including our entire supply chain as well as HR, Quality Management, and Infrastructure. Melanie is an expert in establishing and developing businesses on both the strategic and operational levels. She spent over 6 years in Munich as a consultant in two different strategy management companies and was a project manager at a medical device company. Before joining VirtaMed, she discovered her passion for high-tech start-up companies when she worked as a COO in a biotechnology start-up producing so-called 3D Microtissues. Melanie grew up in the mountains, so she loves spending time outdoors (hiking, skiing). Her greatest passion next to her family is running – so she runs a lot.