Blind Children’s Center Lisa D. Hansen Medical Research Grant Helps Transform CVI Awareness
Blind Children’s Center (BCC) is proud to recognize Dr. Melinda Chang, a member of BCC’s board of directors, for advancing research that is transforming the way children with cerebral/cortical visual impairment (CVI) are diagnosed and supported. Through their partnership, BCC and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), where Dr. Chang practices, are creating the first dedicated CVI clinic of its kind on the West Coast, expanding access to specialized care for children and families.
According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) working definition — which Dr. Chang helped develop — CVI is a brain-based condition that affects how the brain develops and processes visual information. It is one of the leading causes of pediatric visual impairment in the United States and other industrialized nations. Children with CVI often have other neurodevelopmental conditions, and the disorder may go unrecognized until later in childhood. Early identification and reliable assessment are critical to guiding appropriate care and interventions.
The new clinic will help address that need by bringing together specialized clinical expertise, research and individualized support for children with CVI and their families. Their collaboration reflects a shared commitment between BCC and CHLA to improve outcomes through earlier diagnosis, coordinated care and continued research.
Dr. Chang has dedicated her career to improving care for children with neurologic and developmental conditions that affect vision. She is an Associate Professor Ophthalmology, Clinical Scholar, at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California and a dual fellowship-trained pediatric and neuro-ophthalmologist. She earned dual bachelor’s degrees in neuroscience and kinesiology from USC before receiving her medical degree from Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Chang completed her ophthalmology residency and fellowship training at UCLA’s Stein and Doheny Eye Institutes, where she specialized in pediatric and neuro-ophthalmology.
Her clinical work inspired her research into CVI, where clinicians have long faced challenges in diagnosing and measuring the condition. Dr. Chang developed several techniques to assess vision in children with diagnosed or suspected CVI, including Saliency Analysis of Eye Tracking in CVI (SET-CVI), which combines high-resolution eye tracking with artificial intelligence. By recording how a child looks at images on a computer screen, researchers gain valuable insights into visual function and providers can notice visual challenges early on.
The technology has the potential to transform the way providers care for children with CVI by offering a reliable and objective method to assess multiple aspects of vision and visual attention, determine the severity of visual impairment, and facilitate early diagnosis.
“This research continues to evolve as we explore new ways to better understand and assess CVI,” said Dr. Chang. “Our goal is to develop tools that provide more accurate assessments and ultimately help guide individualized care for children with visual impairments.”
After receiving the Lisa D. Hansen Medical Research Grant from BCC, Dr. Chang expanded her research by collaborating with Dr. Mark Borchert (CHLA) and Dr. Christine Roman-Lantzy, the author of the widely used CVI Range functional vision assessment, to develop and test a standardized version of the assessment, the CVI Range for Clinical Research (CVI Range-CR). The CVI Range-CR evaluates how children with CVI use their vision in everyday settings. The grant also helped launch her research program at CHLA, generating the preliminary data needed to obtain additional funding. Recently, she co-chaired a NIH workshop that established the first U.S. consensus definition of CVI, providing an important framework for researchers nationwide.
“The BCC grant was instrumental in helping me establish my research program in cerebral/cortical visual impairment,” said Dr. Chang, who also leveraged an investment from the NIH in her research. Now, her work continues to pave the way for others across the world. “It allowed me to generate the preliminary data that was critical to securing long-term funding for my research.”
With the support of BCC’s funding, Dr. Chang continues to study how eye tracking can identify and characterize CVI in children with specific neurogenetic syndromes, where visual disorders and specifically CVI are often overlooked. Her research aims to determine if treatment of visual disorders can improve the symptoms of neurodevelopmental conditions (including autism) and neurogenetic syndromes.
“Dr. Chang’s research reflects the profound influence of investing in innovation,” said BCC Chief Executive Officer Sarah Orth. “As we work together to establish the first dedicated CVI clinic of its kind on the West Coast, we are expanding opportunities for children with visual impairments and helping families access earlier diagnoses and care.”
Stories like Dr. Chang’s illustrate how critical funding can transform vision care for generations to come. For more than two decades, BCC has identified and supported bold, forward-thinking research that can transform the lives of children with visual impairments. BCC’s $25,000 research grants, now named the Lisa D. Hansen Medical Research Grants in honor of longtime board member Lisa D. Hansen, fuel this initiative by funding studies that push the boundaries of pediatric vision science. As part of its new “Where is the Research Now?” series, BCC will continue to share how past grant recipients are advancing research, improving care and creating brighter futures for children who are blind or visually impaired. For more information about the Lisa D. Hansen Medical Research Grant, visit BlindChildrensCenter.org/Medical-Research.
