Division of Ophthalmology

Physicians in the Division of Ophthalmology are international leaders in pediatric eye research, actively involved in multidisciplinary and innovative research in areas such as gene therapy for retinal degeneration, retinopathy of prematurity, pediatric neuro-ophthalmology, pediatric oculoplastics and orbital surgery, abusive head trauma and retinal hemorrhages, strabismus, pediatric cataract and glaucoma, intraocular lens implantation, pediatric uveitis, and new therapeutic approaches to amblyopia, such as binoucular treatment technologies.

Much of this research involves collaboration with investigators in other Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia divisions and multisite collaborations with centers throughout the United States and beyond. Investigators in the Division have pioneered and advanced research methods for pediatric eye diseases, including applying big data approach to electronic medical records and developing national clinical outcome measures in pediatric ophthalmology, creating an ophthalmology imaging core, and developing predictive modeling methods.

Among the myriad research breakthroughs from research in the Division is the first Food and Drug Administration-approved human gene therapy for an inherited form of retinal blindness.

The Division’s highly productive Ophthalmology Research Core supports clinical research throughout all of the other Children’s Hospital departments and divisions as part of the Center for Human Phenomic Science.