Mohamed Zaazoue

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. In Egypt, residents are required to earn a Master of Science (MSc) degree in their medical or surgical specialty in order to complete their residency training and become specialists.

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 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, 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 Zaazoue's advocacy activities, he had founded the Egyptian Coalition against Child Pneumonia 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). 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. 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). 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, 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 added translation subtitles and adopted them.

Presidential Advisory Council

Zaazoue was appointed as an advisor to President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt in 2014 on community development and healthcare reform 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.

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.

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" 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" 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