Emily Y. Chew, M.D. is the deputy director of the Division of Epidemiology and Clinical Applications and the deputy clinical director at the National Eye Institute (NEI), National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Chew obtained her M.D. from the University of Toronto in 1977. She completed her ophthalmology residency at the University of Toronto and was board certified in ophthalmology in 1983. Dr. Chew then went to the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands to complete her medical retina fellowships. She was an assistant professor in the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Toronto from 1983 to 1986. In 1987, Dr. Chew joined the Clinical Trials Branch at the NEI. Currently, Dr. Chew is the director of the medical retina fellowship program at the NEI. Dr. Chew is a medical retina specialist and has had extensive experience in designing and implementing clinical trails (of Phases 1, 2 and 3) at the NIH Clinical Center. Dr. Chew has a strong clinical and research interest in diabetic eye disease and age-related eye diseases. She has thoroughly worked on analyzing the data from the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) and she continues to manage and analyze data from the Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS). Dr. Chew works on a number of diabetes studies to evaluate genetic associations with diabetic eye disease. In addition, she is working on a large clinical trial called the Actions to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes (ACCORD), testing the effects of tight control of blood sugar, blood pressure and lipid concentration in the blood on diabetic eye disease. Currently, Dr. Chew is the study chair for the Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2 (AREDS2), a Phase 3 study that is investigating the use of lutein/zeaxanthin (found in leafy greens such as kale) and/or omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids as treatment for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and cataracts. AMD and cataracts are the two leading causes of blindness in America. Dr. Chew is also interested in the eye complications of von Hippel-Lundau disease and has collaborated with the scientific team called VHL to increase the number of clinical trials investigating this rare disease. For Dr. Chew any disease that causes blindness is of great importance, no matter how common.

Emily Chew research interest includes phase I/II clinical trials and epidemiologic studies in retinovascular diseases such as age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and other ocular diseases.