Otlobdoctor, is the fastest growing online medical booking database in Egypt, where patients can book from medical professionals, including doctors, nurses, and ambulance dispatch units. They are the first portal for rating and booking doctors in-house visits, and they have developed the first emergency button to dispatch ambulance. With this app users can automatically triangulate their location by GPS, send their coordinates to the nearest available ambulance in cases of emergency, severe illness or injury.

“Nobody understands a patient’s needs better than a physician,” said one of Otlob’s founders, Ashraf Fakhry Elfikry, himself a doctor. “In-house visits used to be a regular routine for doctors back in the day, and this activity may become popular again, especially considering Cairo residents’ tendency to prefer that products and services get delivered to their door step.”

The startup was self-funded until April 2014, when they got incubated and funded by the TIEC , which is affiliated with the Ministry of communication and Information Technology - they got a fund, incubation space, and mentorship.

While the website is still in beta, many aspects of their business model show promise for when they actually go live. For instance, 45% of visitors to the website so far actually returned to it. Licensed doctors of all kinds can put their information in the website’s growing database for free, which is a unique feat compared to the competition. Doctors can start getting customer bookings as soon as they put their information in, and patients can actually rate the doctors after their visit by professionalism, waiting time and friendliness.

OtlobDr’s niche aspect comes from sending doctors on house visits - it is the only website that offers that in the region. They’re also a home care nursing portal for senior citizens and some patients with special needs, and have been getting interest from modernized or specialized clinics.

Otlobdoctor won the Startup demo Competition in Arabnet Beirut 2015 (see related article).