Granit Medical Innovations was founded by Dr. Naomi Nakao, a board certified gastroenterologist practicing in New York City. In 1989, Dr. Nakao and a surgical colleague Dr. Peter Wilk were treating a young woman for a postoperative leak after gastric bypass surgery for morbid obesity.  The patient's condition continued to deteriorate until she was too ill to be operated on. “I wish there were a way to close the leak through an endoscope. If only we had an endoscopic stapling device,” said Dr. Nakao.  In 1991 Drs. Nakao and Wilk were granted the first patent ever issued for a stapling device that would pass through a flexible endoscope.

Dr. Nakao went on to search for solutions that would address shortcomings in medical devices. During a 20 year journey that resulted in 56 patents and patent pending applications, she learned a great deal about the problems that an inventor encounters. Granit Medical Innovations (GMI) was created in order to provide a vehicle for taking Dr. Nakao's intellectual property from idea to medical device.  GMI has been achieving this objective through collaborative alliances with medical equipment manufacturers, biomedical engineers, FDA advisors, and distribution channels.

A company not encumbered by bureaucracy, GMI is in the business of bringing new products to the market for a relatively small cost and in a comparatively short period of time. A large portion of the Company's resources is allocated towards development of flexible endoscopic surgical devices used during transluminal surgery. These instruments are geared chiefly toward bariatric surgery for the morbidly obese patient, and other intra-abdominal operations to be performed through a natural orifice.

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