The following information was curated by: Dr. Rachel Furuya (bio), DEIA Committee
The DEIA committee is proud to present our third annual Black History Month programming, which will feature two of the first Black female surgeon pioneers of their time.
Patricia E. Bath, MD (1942-2019)
Dr. Patricia Bath was an ophthalmologist, research scientist, and advocate for blindness prevention. Dr. Bath received her medical degree from Howard University College of Medicine. She then interned at Harlem Hospital and completed a fellowship in ophthalmology at Columbia University. She went on to complete an additional fellowship in corneal transplantation and keratoprosthesis (replacing the human cornea with an artificial one) at Columbia.
During her training, Dr. Bath noted that over half the patients she saw at the Harlem eye clinic were blind or visually impaired whereas very few patients were blind at Columbia. She did a retrospective study and found that Black patients experienced double the amount of blindness compared to white patients, largely attributed to lack of access. This inspired her to start a new discipline known as “community ophthalmology” which includes public health, community medicine, and clinical ophthalmology to improve care for underserved patients. She also championed bringing free ophthalmic surgical services to Harlem.
Later in her career, she founded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness, an organization guided by her principle that sight is a basic human right. Her commitment to blindness prevention was unwavering. When asked about her personal best moment, she recalls a humanitarian mission where she restored the sight to a woman who had been blind for 30 years saying, “The ability to restore sight is the ultimate reward.”
She has many academic accomplishments in addition to her advocacy. She invented the laser phaco (device used for cataract surgery) for which she received a patent making her the first African American woman to receive a patent. She was the first woman ophthalmologist appointed to faculty at UCLA and went on to become the first woman chair of an ophthalmology residency program (while at UCLA). After retiring in 1993, she was appointed to the honorary medical staff at UCLA.
What’s Happening in St. Louis: Dr. Uché Blackstock at St. Louis County Library
Physician and Healthcare Advocate Uché Blackstock
Author of “Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine”
On Feb 15th, the Florissant Valley Branch of St. Louis County Library will host Dr. Uché Blackstock, a physician and advocate that many of us look up to and follow on social media. She will be in conversation with Dr. Jovita Oruwari, oncologic surgeon and author of “Black Girls in White Coats”. This event is presented by the Arthur Gale Medical Arts Lecture Series.
Want to learn more about Black History? Follow along with 28 Days of Black History programming.
Please use the following link to subscribe for 28 Days of Black History and learn more about our history, as well as how to be an ally.
Published by the Anti-Racism Daily, a project of Reclamation Ventures.