Scott Xiao was a freshman student at Harvard when he first learned of amblyopia. Colloquially known as “lazy eye,” the condition affected one of his classmates and Xiao was moved by their treatment journey. Despite treatment, Xiao’s friend never saw resolution for the disease and, as a result, coped with vision loss into adulthood and into college.
What happened to Xiao’s friend assuredly happens to others, as 1% to 5% of the population have it. Amblyopia is the most common cause of visual impairment in young children, as it’s a developmental disorder in which there’s a decrease in acuity in one or both eyes. Xiao’s empathy for his friend motivated him to start Luminopia alongside his co-founder Dean Travers. On its website, the company says coping with amblyopia is “tough enough”—but getting treated for it doesn’t have to be. Luminopia makes an FDA-approved binocular therapy that leverages a VR headset to stream children’s shows. The device, designed for children ages 4–7, gives treatment for an hour a day, six days a week. Luminopia boasts its product “showed significant vision improvement in as early as 4 weeks in a 12-week clinical trial.” In a recent interview conducted over email, Xiao explained to me Luminopia’s device replaces the traditional eye patch and has “been validated in multiple clinical trials at many of the top children’s hospitals and eye institutes across the country.”
Luminopia has forged partnerships with name-brand media companies such as Nickelodeon, PBS Kids, and Sesame Workshop in an effort to build its content library. As a result, Xiao told me Luminopia whimsically likes to think of itself as putting the treat in treatment.
Xiao said he and Travers started investigating digital technology as a means by which to facilitate amblyopia treatment “in a more engaging and effective manner.” The pair soon came to the realization virtual reality could serve as the platform atop of which therapy could be delivered by “allowing patients to watch TV while presenting a different image to each eye to treat the condition.” Xiao and Travers enlisted the team at Boston Children’s Hospital to build an early prototype as part of a computer science course. Shortly thereafter, Xiao dropped out of school to focus his energies into what would become Luminopia.
“Before Luminopia, there hadn’t been any innovation in amblyopia treatment for decades,” Xiao said of the breakthrough. “There was no playbook for turning our prototype into a commercializable solution.”
Xiao described his company’s mission as “[pioneering] a new class of treatments for neuro-visual disorders such as amblyopia.” The impetus for targeting young children, he said, stems from the fact “it’s important to treat amblyopia as early and aggressively as possible to maximize the chances of full vision recovery while their visual pathway is still developing.” If left untreated—or under-treated, for that matter—Xiao said amblyopia could lead to permanent vision loss. But the ripple effects are many, with Xiao saying amblyopia is also a risk factor for mental health conditions such as ADHD, anxiety, and depression. Patching a child’s only good eye, Xiao said, forces them to go through their days with limited vision; this makes learning, playing sports, and even socializing exponentially more taxing on a young person’s fragile psyche.
Technologically speaking, Xiao told me Luminopia sees “tremendous opportunity” in using VR for therapeutic purposes. He explained “by presenting modified visual stimuli to each eye and using the eyes as a window to the brain,” the team then has the ability to “target specific neural pathways that are deficient in a given condition.” Additionally, Xiao noted the immersive nature of virtual reality is conducive to driving engagement, which is “critical for positive clinical outcomes,” he said.
Content-wise, Xiao said Luminopia has been steadfastly committed to “improving the treatment experience for amblyopia patients and their loved ones” since day one. The result is what Xiao characterized as a “carefully curated” collection of kid-friendly material consisting of more than 3,100 episodes to watch during treatment. It’s a win-win situation.
“We’ve found that most media companies are excited to be part of our mission of helping treat kids affected by amblyopia,” Xiao said of the media side of Luminopia’s business. “In fact, our mission resonated so much with Sesame Workshop that they became an early investor in our company, on top of being a content partner.”
When asked about feedback, Xiao said Luminopia has collaborated with pediatric ophthalmologists and optometrists from top children’s hospitals and eye institutes since the very beginning. Luminopia has been recognized as an official Innovation Partner by Boston Children’s Hospital, with Xiao telling me the company has worked with ophthalmology department staff on several clinical trials. 94% of parents, he added, prefer Luminopia’s solution to treatment than traditional patching. And for doctors, Xiao said Luminopia is a hit because they want the best possible care for their patients—and Luminopia succeeds in areas where patching “doesn’t cut it.” Instead of blocking one eye, Xiao boasted Luminopia stimulates both, making for a unique approach to treating amblyopia that he said renders “significant vision improvement even in patients that have failed patching before.” Luminopia, Xiao said, has an 85% compliance rate with patients.
“It’s very difficult to convince children to patch for the prescribed treatment time due to discomfort, social stigma and many other factors,” Xiao said of the conventional way of addressing amblyopia. “As a result, compliance is typically less than 40% and the majority of patients that go through patching still suffer from the disease afterwards.”
As to the future, Xiao said Luminopia is passionate about engendering better equity in healthcare and feels their work provides “accessible and effective for patients and families of all backgrounds.” He pointed to how there’s a “wealth of evidence” showing compliance to patch-centric treatment for amblyopia is considerably worse amongst Medicaid recipients than those on commercial insurance plans. With Luminopia, however, Xiao said the company is proud to say both Medicaid and commercial patients “see comparable outcomes and adherence.”
Xiao also noted Luminopia is exploring future media deals as well.
“We believe that when done right, digital treatments should make life easier for patients [by] giving them a better shot at improved outcomes and closing the health equity gap,” he said of Luminopia’s ethos.