Patient Care Spotlight: Pediatric Ophthalmology

On a typical Monday morning at Seattle Children’s Ophthalmology Clinic, UW Professor of Ophthalmology and Division Director of Pediatric Ophthalmology Michelle “Mimi” Cabrera, MD, treats a baby born early with retinopathy of prematurity, a high schooler with glaucoma, and a young girl with a blocked tear duct.

“It just shows the breadth of the patients and the conditions we treat here every day,” Dr. Cabrera said. “The kids inspire us; there is so much joy here.”

The UW pediatric ophthalmology team provides comprehensive eye care to children at Seattle Children’s main hospital campus in Laurelhurst, as well as two satellite clinic locations in Bellevue and Everett.

The team includes Dr. Cabrera and comprehensive pediatric ophthalmologists Fran Baran, MD, Erin Herlihy. MD, Laura Huang, MD, and Kristina Tarczy-Hornoch, MD, D.Phil. They are joined by other UW ophthalmology faculty pediatric subspecialists Chris Chambers, MD (Oculoplastics), Debarshi Mustafi, MD, PhD (Pediatric Retina), Andrew Stacey, MD (Ocular Oncology), as well as Vivian Manh, OD (Optometry). They also have a pediatric ophthalmology fellow, currently Mennatullah Elfwwal, MD. They anticipate adding another pediatric ophthalmologist and a physician assistant this year.

“The pediatric ophthalmology practice here at Seattle Children’s has grown tremendously over the 10 years I have been here,” Dr. Cabrera said. The clinic at Seattle Children’s saw more than 7,500 patients in 2024.

The growth stems in part from patients coming from the five-state region for pediatric ophthalmology care.

 “We get patients coming to us from elsewhere in Washington, plus Alaska, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming seeking specialized pediatric ophthalmic care not available in their communities,” Dr. Cabera said.

The clinic offers a range of tests, including electroretinograms, oculomotor (eye movement) testing, visual evoked potential, handheld optical coherence tomography (OCT), and genetic testing for inherited retinal diseases.

The pediatric division also has specialized multidisciplinary clinics in collaboration with the rheumatology and neurology departments at Seattle Children’s.

Cabera has an active research lab studying retinopathy of prematurity, a disease of the developing retina, using handheld Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT). An investigational swept-source handheld OCT was developed in the laboratory of Professor Ricky Wang, PhD.

Collaborative efforts with Dr. Wang's lab have allowed her to investigate retinal findings in infants with unprecedented precision, speed, and imaging resolution.

Dr. Cabrera has been Head of Ophthalmology at Seattle Children’s since 2020. She completed her undergraduate degree in biological sciences at Stanford University, followed by Medical School and ophthalmology residency at UCSF. She then pursued a clinical and research fellowship in pediatric ophthalmology and strabismus at the Duke Eye Center, followed by a position at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, before relocating to Seattle. 

To learn more about the Pediatric Ophthalmology Clinic, visit their website. To support the work of Dr. Cabrera and others, consider giving to the Pediatric Ophthalmology Research Fund.