Hasan Chichan

About Hasan Chichan

“My motivation is rooted in a profound personal and professional dichotomy: I am an expatriate Iraqi ophthalmologist rooted in the heritage of Babylon—the cradle of civilization —yet honed by the precision of German and Swiss ophthalmology. Over the last 18 months, my mission has been to bridge the gap between these two worlds, both geographically and clinically.

Scientifically, I am driven to challenge the traditional ‘wait and watch’ paradigm in early-stage retinal diseases. For too long, we have lacked effective interventions for patients in the gap between early diagnosis and advanced pathology. My recent work focuses on harnessing Photobiomodulation (PBM) and Subthreshold Nanosecond Laser therapies to fill this void, shifting from managing decline to actively stimulating neuroprotection at the mitochondrial level.

Humanitarianly, I am driven by the conviction that sight is a non-negotiable human right. In many developing regions, treatable blindness is not a surgical challenge but a logistical one. Therefore, I have focused on dismantling these barriers by fusing surgical excellence with humanistic care, moving beyond the role of a sporadic volunteer to become an architect of sustainable, high-volume surgical systems.

Impact The impact of this work is twofold:

Scientific standardization. By championing non-invasive, regenerative modalities, I aim to establish a new pillar of treatment alongside pharmacotherapy and surgery. My recent publication, "Photobiomodulation in ocular therapy: current status and future perspectives," helps validate these technologies, offering a roadmap for clinicians to adopt them safely. This empowers ophthalmologists to intervene earlier, preserving quality of life before irreversible damage occurs.

Humanitarian scalability. By developing protocols that allow teams to safely perform 50+ sight-restoring surgeries a day, we have proven that efficiency and excellence are not mutually exclusive in global health. Personally performing over 700 surgeries this past year across missions in Iraq, Morocco, Egypt, and India was a proof of concept for this replicable system. By training local surgeons within this model, we ensure each mission leaves a sustainable footprint, shifting humanitarian ophthalmology from episodic aid to a discipline of scalable, data-driven efficiency.”