Fatema Ghasia, MD

Fatema Ghasia, MD, is a Professor of Ophthalmology at the Cleveland Clinic Cole Eye Institute and holds a faculty appointment at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. She is a clinician-scientist specializing in pediatric ophthalmology, strabismus, and ocular motor disorders, and directs the Vision Neurosciences and Ocular Motility Laboratory at Cleveland Clinic. Her work integrates systems neuroscience, clinical ophthalmology, and advanced quantitative eye-tracking approaches to improve the diagnosis and management of binocular vision disorders. 

Dr. Ghasia received her medical degree with distinction from the Medical College at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India. She completed extensive postdoctoral research training at Washington University in St. Louis, where her work focused on pediatric ophthalmology and binocular vision disorders, including children with cortical visual impairment, cerebral palsy, and other special needs. During this time, she developed expertise in electrophysiology and advanced eye movement analysis, with an emphasis on ocular motor control and its role in visual dysfunction. She subsequently completed her ophthalmology residency at Washington University and fellowship training in pediatric ophthalmology at Duke University. 

Since joining Cleveland Clinic in 2012, Dr. Ghasia has maintained an active, high-volume clinical practice focused on pediatric ophthalmology, pediatric neuro-ophthalmology, adult strabismus, and amblyopia. Her clinical expertise spans the full age spectrum. 

In pediatric patients, she specializes in the evaluation and management of a broad range of childhood eye diseases, including nasolacrimal duct disorders, amblyopia, strabismus, nystagmus, pediatric cataracts, and glaucoma. She has particular expertise in caring for children with complex visual and ocular motility abnormalities, including those with underlying neurological, developmental, and special needs conditions. 

In adult patients, Dr. Ghasia is an experienced strabismus surgeon who manages complex ocular misalignment and binocular vision disorders, including cases related to neurological and orbital disease. Her approach emphasizes restoration of ocular alignment and functional binocular vision, with a focus on improving both visual performance and overall quality of life. Her extensive clinical experience provides a strong foundation for her translational research program, enabling rigorous patient phenotyping, longitudinal assessment, and the direct application of research findings to improve visual outcomes. 

Dr. Ghasia has established a highly productive translational research program focused on the neural and behavioral mechanisms underlying amblyopia, strabismus, and related ocular motor disorders. Her laboratory is among a limited number nationally equipped for high-precision, pediatric-friendly measurement of eye and head movements and binocular function, including advanced video-oculography and integrated psychophysical testing platforms. She has developed innovative experimental paradigms and AI-enabled analytic pipelines to quantify visual sensory and visuomotor function in young children. 

A central focus of Dr. Ghasia’s research is the development of objective biomarkers of visual function. Her work has demonstrated that eye movement abnormalities provide sensitive, quantifiable indicators of disease presence, severity, and treatment response in amblyopia and strabismus. She has further advanced this work through the integration of artificial intelligence–based methods to enable scalable, objective detection of childhood visual disorders. Her research also extends to neuro-ophthalmic applications, including studies of ocular motor dysfunction and the effects of deep brain stimulation in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, further broadening the translational impact of her program. 

Dr. Ghasia has established a strong record of scholarly productivity and extramural funding, with support from Research to Prevent Blindness, the Knights Templar Eye Foundation, Fight for Sight, the Veterans Administration, the Blind Children’s Center, and institutional funding programs. Her work is highly collaborative, bridging ophthalmology, neuroscience, biomedical engineering, and neurology, and leveraging partnerships across Cleveland Clinic, the Cleveland VA Medical Center, and national multicenter research networks, including the Pediatric Eye Disease Investigator Group (PEDIG). 

Dr. Ghasia is a dedicated educator and mentor who has trained numerous fellows, residents, postdoctoral researchers, and students in both clinical and research settings. Her mentorship has led to trainee-driven publications, national presentations, and competitive research awards, with many mentees advancing to successful careers in ophthalmology, neurology, and vision science. She contributes extensively to formal teaching through lectures, clinical instruction, and interdisciplinary training and is widely recognized for excellence in mentorship. She is also an invited lecturer nationally and internationally in the areas of visual neuroscience, pediatric ophthalmology, and eye movement disorders. 

At the national level, Dr. Ghasia has demonstrated leadership through service on committees within the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (AAPOS) and contributions to the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. She serves as a reviewer for the National Institutes of Health and other international funding agencies and holds editorial roles with multiple peer-reviewed journals. She is a member of the American Ophthalmological Society and has been recognized with several honors, including the AAPOS Young Investigator Award, the AAPOS Honors Award, and the Tracy Hull Award. 

Dr. Ghasia’s work is distinguished by its strong mechanistic foundation, translational impact, and commitment to improving clinical care through objective, quantitative approaches. Her program continues to advance the understanding of binocular vision disorders and to develop scalable tools for early detection, monitoring, and treatment optimization in both pediatric and adult populations.