Mohamed Zaazoue

Mohamed A. Zaazoue
Dr. Mohamed A. Zaazoue's headshot around the Longwood Medical Area in Boston, MA in 2016
Born	September 6, 1987 Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Nationality	Egyptian
Education	Master's Degree in Neurosurgery, Ain Shams University (MSc)
Alma mater	Ain Shams University, Faculty of Medicine (MBBCh)
Occupation	Post-doctoral research fellow at Boston Children's Hospital- Department of Pediatric Neurosurgery

Mohamed Zaazoue is an Egyptian neurosurgeon and a post-doctoral research fellow at the pediatric neurosurgery department of Boston Children's Hospital. He is the founder of Healthy Egyptians, a non-profit, non-governmental organisation in Egypt, which aims at spreading health awareness and preventive medicine in Africa through utilising non-conventional methods. He is also an Ashoka fellow.^[1][2]

The work he did as the founding president of Healthy Egyptians was featured in the Financial Times,^[3] Reuters, Al Jazeera^[4] and other local and international news outlets. In 2014, he was chosen as one of the 30 most influential people under the age of 30 in the world by Forbes in their "30 Under 30" feature list.^[5] He also gave a number of talks at TEDx Cairo,^[6] Harvard School of Public Health, Clinton Global Initiative University meeting^[7][8] in Miami, FL, Middle East Institute^[9] in Washington, DC, Population Council among other local talks in Egyptian universities and NGOs.

Neurosurgery residency

After graduating medical school Summa Cum Laude, he started his neurosurgery at Ain Shams University Hospital, Egypt's second biggest university hospital serving patients from all over the country. During his training, he managed to expand the resources of the neurosurgery department by raising funds to obtain neuroendoscopy and other surgical equipment as well as increasing the ICU beds capacity. By the end of his residency, he finished his Master of Science (MSc) in Neurological Surgery degree Cum Laude.

Public health work

Healthy Egyptians

As the founding president of Healthy Egyptians, Zaazoue focused on integrating technology and art in his health awareness messages.

One of the organisation's projects, Protect Your Child, was focused on creating a healthcare icon that would resonate with the young audience and their families. The project created a cartoon character called "Montasser" (Arabic word for Victorious) who goes about his daily life in school, at home, on the street or in the club and has different encounters with infectious organisms and bad health habits. With the help of his doctor friend and his lab of special scientific tools, he combats these organisms and saves his fellow friends and family from the diseases. Interestingly, the organisms included in each story have easy and funny names, but are always derived from the proper scientific name of the causative organism; for example in a story about pneumonia, the "evil characters" are named Hemo and Nemo, which are the cartoonish names for Hemophilus influenzae and Streptococcus pneumoniae, the two most common causative organisms of pneumonia worldwide.

The Portable Child Cinema that was carried on a truck to roam the country and reach remote areas with limited access to facilities.

The concept of Montasser was first applied in a comic book called Montasser Overcomes, which was later turned into a coloring comic book with a complementary set of coloring crayons. To increase the interest of Montasser's audience, the story was transformed into puppet shows. After creating Montasser Overcomes: Pneumonia, Montasser Overcomes: Gastroenteritis, Montasser Overcomes: Iron Deficiency Anemia,^[10] and Montasser Overcomes: Rheumatic Heart Disease, Healthy Egyptians created a high-quality 3-D cartoon of Montasser Overcomes: Pneumonia. The cartoon was aired on satellite and Egyptian television and screened in outpatient clinics, schools, nurseries, social clubs and shopping malls.

To reach remote areas where access to the internet or television is not easy, Healthy Egyptians created a Portable Child Cinema which roamed the country and screened the cartoon to children in different places.

Immunisation advocacy

Healthy Egyptians has been among the most dedicated advocates in Egypt for the introduction of life-saving vaccines to the Egyptian National Immunisation Program. Through Dr. Zaazoue's advocacy activities, he had founded the Egyptian Coalition against Child Pneumonia^[11] which included different organisations that share the vision of decreasing pneumonia morbidity and mortality rates in Egypt, the number one killer disease of children under the age of 5, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).^[12] One of the key members of the coalition was the Maternal and Child Health Integrated Program (MCHIP), the USAID Bureau for Global Health's flagship program.^[13] In 2012, Healthy Egyptians also succeeded in raising funds to provide children from low socioeconomic classes in Egypt with 30,000 doses of Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine, with a net value of EGP 11,500,000 (around $2,000,000, using 2012 exchange rates).^[14] The vaccines were provided free of charge to university and government hospitals all around the country. In 2014, the Egyptian Ministry of Health introduced the Haemophilus influenzae type B (HiB) vaccine in the National Immunisation Program,^[15] an important milestone in the advocacy activities of Healthy Egyptians and the fight against preventable diseases. The pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, the rotavirus vaccine and the Hepatitis A vaccine are yet to be introduced to the National Immunisation Program.

Philips AVENT brand ambassador

Because of his health advocacy efforts, Dr. Zaazoue was chosen as brand ambassador for Philips AVENT, which is the product line of Philips concerned with mother and child. During this time, he helped create a short comedy series called "Fi Baytena Baby" (Arabic for "We have a baby at home") of four episodes that provides young mothers with answers to the most common questions about newborn and infant care like breastfeeding, weaning, balanced diet, colic and sleeping. The webisodes were highly creative and informative which made them a big hit on Egyptian social media among young and expecting parents. The episodes were used by Philips AVENT in Egypt and after its social media success Philips AVENT Middle East adopted them.

Presidential Advisory Council

Dr. Zaazoue was appointed as an advisor to President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt in 2014 on community development and healthcare reform^[16] as part of the presidential specialised councils. He was one of the youngest advisors to ever fill this position. During his advisory work, he pushed for the introduction of health education in public schools and have been vocal on the public healthcare system reform especially issues pertaining to university hospitals' research and training.

Research

Neurosurgery

His research areas of interests are paediatric neurosurgery and tumors. He is interested in the standardisation of patient management and the introduction of guidelines in neurosurgical practise, especially in those conditions whose management remains controversial, such as pineal region tumors.^[17]

Public health

He was a reviewer of presentations, workshops and posters' abstracts submitted to the American University in Cairo's community psychology conference titled "Collaboration for Community Change: Insight, Innovation, and Impact"^[18] which was held in March, 2016.

In 2015, Healthy Egyptians' work has also been the subject of a published research paper titled "The Impact of a Cartoon Character’s Gender on Egyptian Girls’ Knowledge of and Intentions toward Pneumonia Prevention" ^[19] at the Community Psychology program of the American University in Cairo. The research used "Montasser Overcomes" coloring books and cartoons to study whether the gender of children's entertainment tools affects the children's response to the messages presented, namely information retention rate and behavioural change.

Grants and recognition

• Forbes "30 Under 30": In 2014, Dr. Zaazoue was chosen as one of the 30 most influential people under 30 in the world by Forbes magazine in their yearly "30 Under 30" list alongside figures like Malala Yousofzai.
• Southern Vaccine Advocacy Challenge (2011-2012), Grand Challenges Canada: A grant that was given to 5 non-profits around the world to increase awareness in the public and government sectors of developing countries about pneumonia vaccines through innovative awareness sessions involving multimedia tools.
• World Pneumonia Day Advocacy Program (2012), Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health: A prestigious grant to support awareness-raising efforts on World Pneumonia Day and year round in the developing world.
• During his work at Egyptian Medical Students' Association (EMSA), his project won the first place at EMR8 Meeting (Eastern Mediterranean Region) that took place in Jordan in January 2012.
• During his work at Egyptian Medical Students' Association (EMSA), his project won the first place in the Rex Crossley Award^[20] out of all the projects applying from all Medical Schools worldwide in the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA) General Assembly in Ghana in March 2012. Rexley Cross Award is IFMSA’s most prestigious award. This is not only the first time for an Egyptian NGO to win the first place, but also the first time for any Egyptian NGO to be nominated for such an award.
• Healthy Egyptians was featured on the Financial Times as part of the publication's Urban Ingenuity Award in 2012.^[21]
• Healthy Egyptians won first place in the Philips Innovation Award^[22] in 2014, in which Philips was seeking applications of projects that use technology to benefit the Egyptian community.
• Healthy Egyptians' project Dis-is-Ability which aims at empowering people with disabilities through raising awareness and advocacy and by setting up an online platform to market and sell products and services they produce, led by Dr. Haitham Shoman, won UN-Habitat's Urban Youth Fund grant in 2014.^[23] The Fund received applications from youth-led organizations in 91 countries. Applications received went through a thorough competitive evaluation process, including a check of eligibility, quality assessment, shortlisting, vetting by Habitat Program Managers and a final selection of projects by the Steering Committee.
• Dis-is-Ability, under the leadership of Dr. Haitham Shoman, won the King Abdullah II Award for Youth Innovation and Achievement.^[24][25]
• In 2015, Dr. Zaazoue was recognised by the American Chamber of Commerce as one of Stars of Social Entrepreneurship in Egypt for the community work he has done through Healthy Egyptians' different projects.

References