Noha Khater

One of a kind

Noha Khater is a practicing doctor; a Professor at Cairo University; an entrepreneur and a master of multitasking. Her determination propelled her to become one of the few female eye surgeons specialized in retinal surgery worldwide, and the only one in Egypt.

Noha’s business story began when she thought of an innovative model to introduce a fully digital system that could track the medical data records of diabetic patients, with the aim of implementing a nationwide diabetic eye care service. The innovative idea was met with a lot of skepticism and constraints from the medical community where she practiced. But Noha wasn’t discouraged, she knew she could make a greater impact.

Noha feels emotionally attached to those she treats: “I try to live the journey of my patients and address their fears”. She wanted to inspire a radical change in patients’ behavior towards their conditions, alongside education and prevention. “The human and social factors are important to me, as I want to impact people’s lives,” says Noha of her decision to go her own way with the help of her friend and soon -to- be business partner.

Digital solutions to prevent blindness

Committed to her cause of making an impact, Noha became aware of the dire truth concerning the rising number of eye problems related to diabetes. According to the International Diabetes Federation, the disease already affects approximately 15% of the Egyptian population and is on the rise, not only in Egypt but also in the Middle East and North Africa generally. Diabetic patients, pre-diabetics, and at-risk individuals form a population of 15 million in Egypt alone and over 50 million in the Middle East and Africa. These individuals are very likely to develop eye problems at some point, the most severe of which could lead to blindness.

In 2014, Noha launched, Almouneer, Egypt’s first Diabetic Eye Care Centre, as well as the first completely paper-free healthcare provider, the Diabetic Eye Care Centre offers digital retina screening, advanced retinal imaging and treatment by highly trained ophthalmologists and paramedics. Almouneer’s fully digitized processes have helped differentiate Noha’s business from other healthcare providers and she plans to enhance her digital offering even further to include the launch of an appointment scheduling app and integration of its IT systems with other healthcare centers in the near future.

Since its inception, the eye centre has gone on to become one of the most advanced in Cairo and has doubled its workforce, having recently opened three additional branches. To date, Almouneer has served over 20,000 patients across Egypt, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Ghana through its three centers in and around Cairo. It has also recently launched its research activities hoping to establish the first diabetic eye research center in the Middle East and Africa.

With her commitment to the cause, Noha has gone one step further. In addition to Almouneer, Noha has established an NGO to advocate for the improvement of the quality of life of the diabetic through raising awareness, providing free healthcare and funding diabetes research. Noha’s hopes are to unite prevention and treatment for maximum impact.

Expansion is the key to bigger impact

Noha sees growth as crucial to her business. She is now hard at work seeking partnerships with other doctors and centres. This has startled many, who believe that she is inviting and helping the competition but, as Noha acknowledges: “Changing the mentality of the people around me is my biggest challenge, but the support and the prayers of my patients keep me going.”