Professor
Director, National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center
Vice Chair of Research

Areas of Interest
Spinal Cord Injury

Biography

Dr. Chen was trained as a physiatrist in Taiwan and earned a Master of Public Health from Yale University and PhD in epidemiology from UAB. With the unique blend of clinical and research backgrounds, Dr. Chen has been very productive since she joined the UAB Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in 1997 and has gained national and international recognition for her work involving spinal cord injury trends, mortality, and long-term outcomes. Her research has been consistently funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, National Institutes of Health, Paralyzed Veterans of America, and industries.

Dr. Chen also serves as the Director of the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center that manages the longitudinal National Spinal Cord Injury Database and has continuously provided consultation and technical assistance to investigators within and outside the US with analyzing data from the database for research. Dr. Chen also teaches in the UAB School of Public Health and has served as a mentor/preceptor in various capacities for students, residents, and visiting scholars.

Dr. Chen is currently a member of the Editorial Board of the Topics in Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation, the NINDS Common Data Elements (CDEs) Oversight Committee for the Spinal Cord Injury CDE project, the Executive Board of the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine Spinal Cord Injury Interdisciplinary Special Interest Group, the International Spinal Cord Injury Data Set Committee, the Prevention Committee of the International Spinal Cord Society as well as the Prevention and Research Committees of the American Spinal Injury Association.

Education & Training

MD, Chung Shan Medical University, Taiwan
PhD, Epidemiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham
MPH, Yale University