Alaa ElDanasoury, MD, FRCSed, completed his medical studies at the School of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, in 1986 and later obtained a master’s degree in ophthalmology from the same university in 1989. He then moved to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to join the Magrabi Eye Hospital, where he completed a two-year fellowship in Cornea and Refractive Surgery under George O. Waring III at the Magrabi Eye Hospital in Jeddah. In 1994, he passed the necessary examinations at the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh, and is a certified Fellow.
In 1995, Dr. ElDanasoury served as cornea and refractive surgery consultant and subsequently as medical director at Magrabi Eye & Ear Center in the United Arab Emirates, where his performance of duty was impeccable. In 2001, he relocated to his present duties at the Magrabi Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Dr. ElDanasoury currently serves as chief medical officer and director of the Cornea and Refractive Surgery Units of the Magrabi Hospitals and Centers in the Middle East. Magrabi Hospital is a chain of 21 hospitals and centers, the largest in the Middle East. Dr. ElDanasoury also chairs the Scientific Committee of the Middle East Africa Council of Ophthalmology (MEACO) and supervises the scientific programs of MEACO meetings. In 2011, he was elected to serve as a member of the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s Board of Trustees; he is the first non-American to serve in this position. His additional duties include supervising the Magrabi Health Care quality programs and medical educational activities, including advanced lamellar corneal surgery instructional courses and hands-on training for regional cornea and refractive surgeons. He considers his highest achievement to be training more than 12 cornea and refractive surgery fellows; some of them are now leading ophthalmologists in their own countries.
Dr. ElDanasoury is the immediate past president of the International Society of Refractive Surgery (ISRS). He is among the very first refractive surgeons to perform excimer laser surgery in the world and was the first to introduce many ophthalmic procedures to the Middle East over the last two decades, including phakic IOLs, intracorneal ring segments, conductive keratoplasty, crosslinking, corneal inlays and recently femtosecond cataract laser surgery.
He also has many peer-reviewed publications and book chapters, many awards and recognitions, invited lectures, and several hundred presentations at international meetings to his credit. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Refractive Surgery (JRS) and the Middle East Africa Journal of Ophthalmology (MEAJO). He holds membership at many international societies including ISRS, the Academy, the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, the Saudi Ophthalmological Society, the Egyptian Ophthalmological Society, and the Asian Cornea Society and has been a member of the International Intraocular Implant Club (IIIC) since 2009.
Dr. ElDanasoury has received many awards including the 2009 Kritzinger Memorial Award of the ISRS/AAO (2009), the Academy’s Achievement Award in 2007, and the Pan-Arab African Council of Ophthalmology (PAACO) Award in 2005. He has also been the recipient of many regional ophthalmological societies’ awards, including the Sudanese Society of Ophthalmology Award in 2001, the Jordanian Society of Ophthalmology Award in 1999, the Lebanese Society of Ophthalmology Award in 1998, and the Kuwait Society of Ophthalmology Award in 1997.
