Richard Legge, MD, to receive lifetime achievement award

Richard Legge, MD, assistant professor in the UNMC Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, will be honored with the Perkins School for the Blind Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2024 Perkins CVI Conference, to be held June 23-25 at the Revere Hotel in Boston.

The award not only is a recognition of his decades-long commitment to understanding cerebral visual impairment; it also honors his unwavering dedication to improving the lives of countless children affected by this condition.

CVI, or brain-based visual impairment, as Dr. Legge prefers to call it, is the leading cause of pediatric visual impairment in developed countries. Children can be born with it, or it can be caused by illness, trauma or a seizure disorder during infancy or early childhood.  

Dr. Legge’s interest in the field — and frustration with the scarcity of scholarly work — led him to organize the American Conference on Pediatric Cortical Visual Impairment, which has been held nine times since 2012.

Dr. Legge’s foremost goal with these conferences is to answer the question: “What do these children see and how can we help them see better?”

Dr. Legge said the lack of literature on the subject prompted the need for a comprehensive understanding of CVI and effective tools for measuring the vision of affected children.

“Even though this field is still in infancy, there are now specialists who have made this their careers,” Dr. Legge said. “There is now scholarly work, and there is interest in funding and improving outcomes.”

The conference laid the foundation for this scholarly work, turning CVI into a subject of specialized study. The Trans-National Institute of Health Workshop on CVI in 2023 marked a milestone, with the clear goal of establishing diagnostic criteria for CVI and creating a database of patients willing to participate in research. Interdisciplinary collaboration expanded, involving doctors, teachers, parents and professionals.

“Dr. Legge’s leadership and diligence in organizing the scholarly effort to better understand the area of Pediatric Cortical Visual Impairment has led to milestone improvements in the conversations between providers and patient families, paving the way for a brighter future for children and their caregivers,” said Ronald Krueger, MD, McGaw Professor and Chair of the UNMC Department of Ophthalmology. 

Dr. Legge said the award not only is a personal accolade, but also symbolizes a collective commitment to making a difference in the lives of those facing the challenges of cerebral visual impairment.

He pointed to another notable figure in the field, Christine Roman, PhD, the director of the Pediatric View Program at the Western Pennsylvania Hospital in Pittsburgh, who developed a scale for measuring vision and its application in classrooms.

“Dr. Roman’s contributions provided valuable insights into addressing the unique challenges faced by children with CVI,” Dr. Legge said. “Sarah Olson, the CME coordinator at Children’s Nebraska, played a pivotal role as conference organizer and fundraiser through The Children’s Foundation.”

“We congratulate Dr. Legge on his receipt of this Lifetime Achievement Award by the Perkins School for the Blind,” Dr. Krueger said. “He has been a true pioneer in this most common cause of childhood blindness and well deserves the recognition bestowed upon him with this award.”