Fikry Riad, MD, died suddenly and peacefully on Dec. 12, 2014, at the age of 63. He was chairman and medical director of Watany Eye Hospital in east Cairo, Egypt.

President of the ARVO-Egypt Chapter, Dr. Riad founded Watany Eye Hospital in 2001 with two other ophthalmologists. Watany rapidly progressed to become the largest private ophthalmic hospital in Egypt, serving about 85,000 patients annually from Egypt and the Middle East. Dr. Riad also served in the public sector where he trained and worked as an ophthalmic surgeon, rising through the ranks from resident to professor and clinical director in the General Organization for Teaching Hospitals and Institutes.

Dr. Riad passed away while he and his son, also an ophthalmologist, were on their way to operate on a group of patients using femtosecond cataract, which Dr. Riad was introducing in Egypt. He was one of the first surgeons to introduce phacoemulsification in Egypt following a fellowship in Bonn, Germany. He pioneered many innovations in anterior segment and refractive surgery in Egypt.