User:IJeanBaptiste/Patricia Bath

(Early Life and Education)

Throughout her childhood, Bath was often told by her parents to "never settle for less than [her] best" and had been encouraged by their support of her education. Her mother, encouraging her dreams and love of science, had bought her her first chemistry set.

In high school, Bath also was further encouraged in biology courses to explore her love of science, spending extra time in biology labs to learn more. During her freshman year at Hunter College, Bath had won a Merit Award from Mademoiselle magazine for her discoveries at the Yeshiva University Summer Program.

In this summer program, led by Rabbi Moses D. Tendler, Bath had studied the effects of streptomycin residue on bacteria. Through this, she was able to conclude that cancer, itself, was a catabolic disease and tumor growth was a symptom.

(Career)

While at UCLA, Dr. Bath had wanted to pursue research, though being denied the grants and resources by the National Institutes of Health and the National Eye Institute. It was then she had decided to look further for the best laboratories in the world, to support her plans for innovation in the world of ophthalmology.

(Blindness Studies and Community Ophthalmology)

Dr. Bath's main humanitarian efforts can be seen through her work at The American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness. Co-founded in 1976 with Dr. Alfred Cannon, an American psychiatrist and community organizer, and Dr. Aaron Ifekwunigwe, a Nigerian-born pediatrician and human rights advocate, this organization had been created on the principle that "eyesight was a basic human right." Through this organization, Bath was able to spread eye care throughout the globe by providing newborns with free eye drops, vitamins for malnourishment, and vaccinations against diseases that can cause blindness, like measles. Dr. Bath was able to spend her time as director traveling the world performing surgeries, teaching and lecturing at colleges.

Through this organization, Dr. Bath traveled to Tanzania in 2005, where cataracts had become the lead cause of cataracts during this time. In Africa, this organization provided computers and other digital resources for visually impaired students, specifically at the Mwereni School for the Blind in Tanzania and St. Oda School for the Visually Impaired in Kenya.

Patricia Bath, being a strong advocate for telemedicine, had supported the innovation of virtual labs, as a part of the curriculum in ophthalmology residency training programs, to provide surgeons with more realistic experience, made possible by 3D imaging. In an article written by Dr. Bath, in the Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, she had proven that with better training and supervision in residency programs, students were able to achieve better results in their surgeries, leading to greater visual acuity.

(Awards and Honors)

Dr. Bath had also been a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons from 1976 to 1989, a fellow of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, as well as a member of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery and the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. Dr.Bath also won the NAACP Legal Defense Fund Black Woman Achievement Award in 1995.

Dr.Bath was also recognized for her philanthropic work in the field of ophthalmology by President Barack Obama. In 2009, she was on stage with President Obama and was put on his commission for digital accessibility to blind children.