Lea Hyvarinen MD, PhD, FAAP

Dr. Lea Hyvärinen is a Finnish ophthalmologist who after her doctoral dissertation on experimental fluorescein angiography in Finland, was invited to work (1967-1969) as Dr. A. Edward Maumenee's Fellow at the Wilmer Institute, Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD. Dr. Hyvärinen was given the opportunity to start the first clinical fluorescein angiographic laboratory which provided new insight in diabetic retinopathy, retinitis pigmentosa, and histoplasmosis. At the Wilmer Institute, she worked closely with Dr. Louise Sloan and her team in vision rehabilitation. These experiences strongly influenced Dr. Hyvärinen’s career in vision rehabilitation and further development of vision assessment techniques.

Dr. Hyvärinen worked with her late husband’s Juhani Hyvärinen’s research group at the Institute of Physiology at University of Helsinki (1971-1983) on visual deprivation studies of monkeys. These investigations showed that early vision deprivation permanently changes function in the neural networks normally combining visual information with other sensory information and ongoing activities. As a result, vision loses its presentation in cortical functions. These studies helped form her theoretical foundation in early intervention.