Prof. Emily Y. Chew

Emily Y. Chew, MD, Director of the Division of Epidemiology and Clinical Applications at the National Eye Institute (NEI), National Institutes of Health (NIH), is also the Chief of the Clinical Trials Branch. She received her medical degree and her ophthalmology training at the U. of Toronto, School of Medicine. She completed her fellowship in Medical Retina at the Wilmer Eye Institute, the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutes and the U. of Nijmegen, the Netherlands.

Emily has conducted clinical trials and epidemiologic studies in retinovascular diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic retinopathy, the leading causes of blindness. She led large randomized trials including the Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS), AREDS2, the Actions to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes (ACCORD) Eye Study, and the clinical trials of the international Macular Telangiectasia Project (Mac Tel Project). She chairs the international study, AMD Ryan Initiative Study (ARIS), which evaluates the natural course of early AMD. She also collaborates with colleagues at the National Library of Medicine (NLM/NIH) utilizing of artificial intelligence/deep learning on the detection and progression of AMD.

She previously served on the editorial board of Investigative Ophthalmology and Vision and had served as the editor of the Transactions of the American Ophthalmological Society (2011-2018). Emily is currently a member of the editorial boards of Ophthalmology, Ophthalmology Retina, and Retina journals. She also serves as the editor-in-chief for Ophthalmology Science. Emily has also served on numerous committees in the American Academy of Ophthalmology, and she currently is the Chair of the AAO IRIS Registry Data Analytics Committee.

Emily has been recognized for her scientific accomplishments and mentoring efforts by American Academy of Ophthalmology (Life time Achievement, Jackson Memorial Lecture), NIH (excellence in mentoring and the Astute Clinician), Association for Research in Ophthalmology and Vision (gold fellow medal), and professional societies such as Retina Society, Macula Society, American Society of Retinal Specialists, Helen Keller Foundation, and Bressler Award.