Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct. 23, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Notal Vision, Ltd., a privately held ophthalmic company focused on advancing eye care with precision medicine by extending disease management from the clinic to the home, is pleased to announce the appointment of Kester Nahen, PhD as Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Nahen joined the company as Chief Commercial Officer in August 2019, bringing a wealth of global leadership experience in the medical device industry to his new position.

“I am delighted that Kester Nahen has accepted the offer to be Chief Executive Officer and lead Notal Vision through the company’s next phase of growth and beyond,” said Guy Katsav, Notal Vision’s Chairman of the Board. “As a respected expert in ophthalmic imaging with deep experience in product development and global commercial execution, Kester is the perfect leader to advance the company’s ForeseeHome® and Home OCT diagnostic services programs”, he added. “I want to thank Dr. Susan Orr for her service as CEO and specifically for her leadership in driving the Home OCT program and turning it into a reality.”

Prior to joining Notal Vision, Dr. Nahen was Managing Director of ophthalmic diagnostic device manufacturer Heidelberg Engineering GmbH and served on the board of the company’s US subsidiary. He co-led the organization through over 10 years of strong growth fueled by the strategic alignment of the Spectralis OCT imaging platform with innovative pharmacologic treatment solutions. From 2001 to 2006, Dr. Nahen worked at Laserscope Inc., a Silicon Valley based medical laser company. Dr. Nahen was a member of the AMS/Laserscope merger executive team culminating in the sale of Laserscope at 45% over market cap, at a price of $715 million. He received his PhD in Physics from the Medical University of Lübeck, Germany.

Dr. Kester Nahen has repeatedly demonstrated effective leadership in high performing companies driven by disruptive technologies. A passionate marketer of high-performance medical devices and software solutions, he propelled the adoption of new standards of care in the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia and retinal disease management. As a valued partner in both industry and academia, including clinical research collaborations and business development activities, Dr. Nahen is well known for his technical and clinical expertise in laser medicine and ophthalmic imaging.

“Notal Vision is uniquely positioned to continue to lead the ophthalmic home diagnostic services market through the company’s broad expertise in the design of low cost medical devices, the development of effective artificial intelligence (AI)-driven decision support solutions and the operation of a dependable clinical patient engagement platform, the Notal Vision Diagnostic Clinic,” said Dr. Nahen. “With the well-established ForeseeHome AMD Home Monitoring Program and the Home OCT platform currently under development, Notal Vision supports patients throughout their journey from early diagnosis to personalized therapeutic management of retinal diseases. Strong synergies between rapidly converging home diagnostic services and pharmacologic treatment solutions bear great potential for the rapid growth of Notal Vision.”

About Notal Vision

Notal Vision is a diagnostic services company with a proven platform for engaging patients and AI-enabled analyses of high-volume personalized health data that extends disease management frommthe clinic to the home to improve vision outcomes, reduce treatment burden, and improve health economics. www.notalvision.com

ForeseeHome is an FDA-cleared diagnostic that monitors visual changes in patients at risk of vision loss from undiagnosed wet AMD. ForeseeHome is covered by Medicare and most private insurances. To learn more, visit www.foreseehome.com.

Notal Vision’s Home OCT will enable exudative AMD patients to perform technician-free OCT testing at home with rapid, self-guided fixation – critical components, especially for elderly patients frequently with pre-existing vision loss. The Notal OCT Analyzer (NOA^TM), a proprietary machine learning algorithm, developed in-house, performs automated analysis of the Home OCT scans and generates a report to the physician when a physician specified change in disease activity is detected. The Notal Vision Diagnostic Clinic sends reports to the treating physician which characterize quantitative changes in fluid. In addition, physicians will be provided 24/7 access to all B-scan images from each home OCT test with the location of the fluid annotated on each B-scan. Following physician receipt of an alert report, patients may be brought to the office for evaluation and treatment at the doctor’s discretion. NOA can also analyze the output of other commercial OCT devices, and published study data indicate that the performance of NOA in detecting disease activity was similar to that of retina physicians when each was compared to a panel of experts. Notal Vision’s Home OCT has the potential to truly individualize and advance retinal disease management.