Dr. Alissa Hudson Brings a Personal Approach to Eye Care

At Middle TN Eye, Dr. Alissa Hudson combines surgical precision with a genuine love for people, building lasting relationships with patients across the Upper Cumberland.

For Dr. Alissa Hudson, the most meaningful part of her work has never been the number of procedures she has performed. It is the people behind them.

Medicine was woven into Hudson’s life from an early age. Her father was a plastic surgeon, as are her brothers, so conversations about patients, hard work and caring for others were simply part of growing up.

Her father’s influence became especially meaningful after he passed away shortly after she graduated from Baylor School in Chattanooga. Hudson went on to the University of Alabama and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine before finding a specialty that combined her love of people with the challenge and precision she enjoyed.

“I love the precision of surgery, but I also love people,” Hudson said. “Ophthalmology gives me both.”

That personal approach remains at the heart of Middle TN Eye Associates today.

Hudson has performed approximately 15,000 LASIK procedures in the Upper Cumberland and 22,000 cataract procedures throughout her career, but when she reflects on those numbers, she thinks about individual moments: nervous patients, someone seeing brighter colors again or the person who wakes up after LASIK and instinctively reaches for glasses before realizing they can already see. 

“Those little things are not little when you have spent years depending on glasses,” Hudson said. “It is fun to see people realize, ‘Wait a minute. This is my life now.'”

The same philosophy influenced Middle TN Eye’s recent renovation and expansion. Hudson wanted the practice to grow without losing the warmth that has helped generations of local families feel at home there.

“I wanted a space that felt beautiful but never intimidating,” she said. “We wanted our patients to walk in and feel comfortable, welcomed, and taken care of.”

That sense of familiarity is especially important to Hudson. Patients are often neighbors, friends and families the practice has known for years. Some visits include stories about children and grandchildren. Others begin with nervousness and end in laughter.

“I love the patient who comes in nervous and leaves laughing,” Hudson said. “And I love the relationships that develop when you care for people over many years.”

It is also why, despite decades of experience and thousands of procedures, Hudson still finds so much joy in her work. 

“We are not just improving eyesight,” she said. “We are helping people get back to being themselves.”

As Middle TN Eye enters its next chapter, Hudson has no plans to slow down. There are more people to help, relationships to build and plenty of laughter still to come.

“To the Upper Cumberland, I would say thank you for trusting us, for bringing your families to us, and for allowing us to be part of your lives,” Hudson said. “We are going to keep working hard, keep growing, and probably keep laughing pretty loudly along the way.” 

For more information on Middle TN Eye, visit their website.

_{by Chelsea Dartez, photography by Jennifer Clark.}