Dr. Amalie Chen
Assistant Professor of Neurology
After a positive experience at Vanderbilt during medical school, Dr. Amalie Chen and her husband were happy to return to Vanderbilt in September 2025 following fellowship training and experience elsewhere. As a neuro-ophthalmologist, Dr. Chen particularly enjoys working with medical students and trainees, as well as educating patients. In a year of much transition, hot yoga has been her consistent hobby, and she recently completed her hot yoga teacher’s certification.
Tell us about your background and how your path led to Vanderbilt.
I was born and raised in Canada and went to Penn for college. I took a couple of years off before starting medical school, and I lived in New York during that time. I came to Vanderbilt for medical school, where I met my husband. After graduation I went on to neurology residency in Boston at Mass General Brigham, and then completed my neuro-ophthalmology fellowship at Mass Eye & Ear. From there I worked as an attending at Wake Forest while my husband completed his fellowship training in surgery. Both my husband and I started back here at Vanderbilt in September 2025.
What piqued your interest in neuro-ophthamology?
During my first year of medical school, we had an amazing faculty member—Dr. Eli Zimmerman—who had a really elegant way of teaching neuro-anatomy. Neuro-ophthalmology in particular has a huge emphasis on anatomy, where you often need the patient’s exam to localize the lesion. The patient population in neuro-ophthalmology is also so broad; you see patients in their teens and early 20s all the way up to people in their 80s and up. The big range of ages and diverse cases keeps it interesting in the clinic.
Can you describe your current role?
I’m usually in the clinic; neuro-ophthalmology is predominantly outpatient. My clinics are divided with half neuro-ophthalmology and the other half general neurology, with some resident clinic. I do a few weeks of inpatient general neurology consult as well, so that changes it up and keeps it interesting through the year.
What did you like about Vanderbilt that made you want to come back?
My husband and I both had an amazing medical school experience. We met some of our closest friends through medical school and really created a community here. A trend I've noticed among others at Vanderbilt is that many who start at Vanderbilt and go away do come back. A lot of that has to do with the enviorment—not just the city itself but the Vanderbilt community. Many of the faculty members we worked with as students are still here. I loved the neurology department while I was here as a medical student. There are so many excellent educators, many of whom convinced me to go into neurology in the first place. We have lots of friends and a big community here. The residency program is robust, and trainees are always eager to learn and grow. It makes your job easier when you’re around others who are excited to be there as well.
What are your long-term career aspirations?
I am predominantly a clinician. I do love teaching and working with the trainees, including medical students and residents. We don’t currently have a neuro-ophthalmology fellowship, but my hope would be to start one in coming years. It’s a lot of fun to teach, as well as to see cases from trainees' perspectives, because their questions bring you back to basics. It keeps you on your toes and it’s also refreshing in a lot of ways. I currently get to work with trainees in both the inpatient and outpatient settings. (People underestimate how different those two are!) It's nice to show them the ropes and work with them in that way. And that goes both ways. For instance, when I started here, I was on inpatient service, and I didn’t know where anything was (much had changed since I was in medical school)—so I relied on the residents to show me where to go, what the protocols were, etc. So for the future, I’d like to continue to be involved in clinical education and work with the medical students.
What do you consider some of the highlights of your current job?
I do like spending time explaining what’s going on to a patient. Because neuro-ophthalmology is such an obscure field, we get complex questions and patients often come in and they have no idea why they were sent there. So I like taking a step back and educating the patient, even giving a bit of an anatomy lesson. So many times patients will say that prior to that no one had explained to them what was going on. To provide that clarity for a patient and their family is rewarding. I also really enjoy discussing challenging cases with my neuro-ophthalmology and neurology colleagues. We have weekly scheduled meetings and it’s been wonderful to have incredible colleagues to share cases with.
What are some of the challenging aspects? What helps you rise to meet them?
I’ve worked at 3 different academic centers in the course of two years so there’s been a lot of change and learning in a short amount of time. A lot of the challenge is not the clinical decision-making itself but rather it’s the day to day logistic issues like learning the institution-specific protocols. It gets better in time, but I think the fix is just not being afraid to ask questions. It’s a humbling experience to start over at a new institution, but I’ve learned a lot in a short amount of time.
Who have been some important mentors for you along the way?
I would say Dr. Eli Zimmerman was one I continued to connect with after I left Vanderbilt. My residency program director, Dr. Sashank Prasad, is the neuro-ophthalmologist who got me interested in my field. During fellowship, the division chair, Dr. Joseph Rizzo, was an incredible mentor to me. Dr. Francesca Bagnato here at Vanderbilt has been really supportive throughout medical school and now that I’m a faculty member. She’s a big resource for a lot of people, and it was nice to be able to pick right back up where we left when I came back after six years.
How do you like to spend your free time?
I completed my 200 hour yoga teacher training this past year. I love doing hot yoga and Nashville has a lot of great studios. My husband and I enjoy checking out new restaurants in East Nashville, an area that really exploded after we finished medical school. I’m also a big Trader Joe’s fan.