Notal Vision Announces Appointment of Dr. Susan Orr as Chief Executive Officer

MANASSAS, Va., Nov. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Notal Vision, Ltd., a privately-held ophthalmic company focused on improving vision outcomes by extending ophthalmic diagnostic testing from the clinic to the home, has announced that after a long and successful period of growth and expansion, current Chief Executive Officer, Quinton Oswald, will retire at the end of this year. Susan Orr, OD, Chief Medical Officer and Vice President of Medical Affairs, has been appointed CEO, effective January 1, 2019. Quinton Oswald will continue to serve on Notal's Board of Directors. Grace Chang, MD, PhD, recently joined Notal and will assume the role of Chief Medical Officer.

"This leadership transition is the result of a long-term succession plan," stated Guy Katsav, Chairman of Notal Vision. "Quinton Oswald's astute guidance and deep expertise in the retinal space have been vital to Notal Vision since he joined in May of 2016. He has skillfully led the journey from a start-up company to a fully scalable commercial enterprise, setting the stage for Notal's next phase of growth and cementing its position as the pioneer in ophthalmic home-based disease monitoring. His role on the Board of Directors will ensure a smooth transition through 2019 as Susan Orr assumes the responsibilities of CEO. With deep gratitude and appreciation, we thank Quinton Oswald for his contributions."

"Susan is uniquely qualified to assume leadership as CEO and I am honored to be passing her the baton," said Quinton Oswald, CEO.  Dr. Orr joined Notal Vision as CMO in July of 2016. During her tenure, she built Notal's medical capabilities and demonstrated exceptional leadership throughout the evolution of the cloud-based Notal Vision Diagnostic Clinic and the Home Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) program, which will be the next application to use the monitoring platform. With more than 20 years of ophthalmic and retina strategy, development, and operational experience, Dr. Orr will seamlessly step into her new role as Chief Executive Officer.

Dr. Grace Chang, a board-certified ophthalmologist and practicing vitreoretinal surgeon, recently held several high-level clinical and strategic roles at Alcon Laboratories, a subsidiary of Novartis, following a faculty appointment in the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Washington. She served as a Therapeutic Unit Expert in the ophthalmic surgical division, responsible for scientific and clinical strategy in R&D, providing key technical and medical specialty contributions to product development plans in all stages.  Her extensive knowledge of the clinical and technical aspects of retina disease and product development will be integral to the continued growth of Notal Vision. 

Dr. Chang completed her ophthalmology residency and vitreoretinal fellowship at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston, MA. She is currently a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Ophthalmology, Vitreoretinal Service at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA. Additionally, Dr. Chang has a Masters in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and a PhD in Computational Neuroscience from the California Institute of Technology.  This rare combination will enable her to apply her unique skill set while working closely with Notal's R&D team in Tel Aviv on current artificial intelligence programs and software and hardware development that underpins home monitoring programs. 

"Notal Vision is revolutionizing the field of home diagnostics for retinal disease and I look forward to continuing our progress and further innovating as Chief Executive Officer. I am honored to be following in the footsteps of Quinton Oswald, who has always sought out disruptive and innovative therapies and technology in the retina space.  Many lives and careers have been touched by his decades-long commitment and we wish him the best in the next well-deserved chapter of his life," said Dr. Orr.  "I am also thrilled to have Dr. Chang take on the role of Chief Medical Officer. I can't think of anyone else more ideal for this role. She possesses key first-hand clinical experience and development knowledge that will continue to advance the ForeseeHome^® and Home OCT programs, which leverage Notal's innovative and proprietary cloud-based platform to capture and analyze home testing results, connecting eye care physicians and their patients."

About Notal Vision's Cloud-Based Platform
Notal Vision has established a seamless, cloud-based platform that connects healthcare providers and their patients through personalized, remote detection of ocular diseases. ForeseeHome^®, the first application of Notal Vision's cloud-based platform, is an FDA-cleared diagnostic testing device which uses this platform to monitor visual changes in patients at risk of vision loss from wet AMD. ForeseeHome is covered by Medicare and most private insurances. To learn more, visit http://www.foreseehome.com.

The Notal Home OCT, the next application of Notal's cloud-based platform, will enable patients to perform technician-free OCT at home with self-guided fixation – critical components, especially for elderly patients. The Notal OCT Analyzer (NOA), a proprietary machine-learning algorithm developed in-house, performs automated analysis of the Notal Home OCT scans and generates an alert report to the physician when fluid is present in the retina. The NOA sends reports to physicians for review that ranks OCT cross sections from most to least fluid with associated images, at which point the patient may be brought to the office for evaluation and treatment. NOA can also analyze the output of other commercial OCT devices, and published study data indicate that the performance of NOA was similar to that of retina physicians when each was compared to a panel of experts. The Notal Home OCT has the potential to truly individualize retinal disease management.

About Notal Vision, Ltd.
Notal Vision was founded by two ophthalmologists and is committed to providing the eyecare community with innovative, home-based, diagnostic technologies that support visual health in patients with retinal diseases. To learn more, visit www.notalvision.com.

SOURCE Notal Vision

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