Tom S. Chang, MD

Dr. Chang is an internationally renowned clinician, surgeon and educator. He received his MD from the University of Toronto Medical School and his ophthalmology residency training from the University of Western Ontario. He completed three fellowships in retinal diseases: an ophthalmic pathology fellowship from the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University, a macular disease fellowship with Dr. Donald Gass at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute of the University of Miami, and a vitreoretinal surgery fellowship at Emory University in Atlanta.

Upon completion of his training, Dr. Chang was Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of British Columbia for five years and then an Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at the Doheny Eye Institute for six years where he was Director of the Retina Fellowship. In November 2005, he founded the Retina Institute of California (RIC).

Dr. Chang was part of the team that performed the world’s first surgical implantation of stem cell treatment for dry macular degeneration, which was in collaboration with the Johnson & Johnson Stem Cell organization. To date, the doctors at RIC have performed more sub-retinal stem cell surgeries than any other center in the world.

Dr. Chang has given over 120 lectures in 15 countries, and has written over 50 peer-reviewed publications. He serves on the scientific advisory boards of several Fortune 500 companies and previously was the team ophthalmologist for the NBA Vancouver Grizzlies. His patients include many CEOs, professional athletes and physicians.

His research interests include health outcome assessments and drug delivery systems. His clinical interests include macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy.