Speaker 1: In the meantime, we are going to take a moment
Speaker 1: and discuss We're looking back for a moment. We're going
Speaker 1: to discuss the way Black History Fact and today's way
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Speaker 1: from nih dot gov. You can check this out for
Speaker 1: yourself because I had to edit it way down because
Speaker 1: this woman is fantastic and I can't share everything with you.
Speaker 1: Those are times in the States, but I will read.
Speaker 1: Patricia Ebath, an ophthalmologist and laser scientist, was an innovative
Speaker 1: research scientist and advocate for blindness prevention, treatment, and cure.
Speaker 1: Our accomplishments include the invention of a new device and
Speaker 1: technique for cataract surgery known as laser faco. I hope
Speaker 1: I'm saying this writer is very medical, the creation of
Speaker 1: a new discipline known as community ophthalmology, and appointment as
Speaker 1: the first woman chair of opthalmology in the United States
Speaker 1: at Drew UCLA in nineteen eighty three. So an accomplished woman.
Speaker 1: Patricia Bath's dedication to a life in medicine began in
Speaker 1: childhood when she first heard about doctor Albert Schweitzer's service
Speaker 1: to lepers in the Congo. After excelling in her studies
Speaker 1: in high school, in university and earning awards for scientific
Speaker 1: research as early as age sixteen, doctor Bath embarked on
Speaker 1: a career in medicine. She received her medical degree from
Speaker 1: Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, d c. Interned
Speaker 1: at Harlem Hospital from nineteen sixty eight to nineteen sixty nine,
Speaker 1: and completed a fellowship in ophthalmology at Columbia University from
Speaker 1: sixty nine to seventy. Following her internship, doctor Bath completed
Speaker 1: her training at New York University between nineteen seventy and
Speaker 1: seventy three, where she was the first African American resident
Speaker 1: in ophthalmology. Bath married and had a daughter, Erica, born
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy two. While motherhood became her priority, she
Speaker 1: also managed to complete a fellowship in corneal transplantation and carapchoprofesis,
Speaker 1: replacing the human cornea with an artificial one. As a
Speaker 1: young intern, shuttling between Harlem Hospital and Columbia University, Bath
Speaker 1: was quick to observe that at the E Clinic in Harlem,
Speaker 1: half the patients were blind or visually impaired, and at
Speaker 1: the I Clinic at Columbia, by contrast, there were very
Speaker 1: few obviously blind patients. This observation led her to conduct
Speaker 1: a retrospective epidemiolog epidemiological study sorry which documented that blindness
Speaker 1: among blacks was double that among whites. She reached the
Speaker 1: conclusion that the high prevalence of blindness among blacks was
Speaker 1: due to the lack of access of ophthalmology ophthalmologic care,
Speaker 1: so as a result, she proposed a new discipline known
Speaker 1: as community optthalmology, which is now operative worldwide. Community optalmology
Speaker 1: combines the aspects of public health, community medicine, and clinical
Speaker 1: optomology to offer primary care to underserved populations. The first
Speaker 1: major eye operation at Harlem Hospital was performed in nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy As a result of her efforts, all I got
Speaker 1: to get through this quick. In seventy four, Bath joined
Speaker 1: the faculty at UCLA at Charles R. Drew University as
Speaker 1: an assistant professor of surgery and Optalmology. The following year,
Speaker 1: she became the first woman faculty member in the Department
Speaker 1: of optthalmology. Despite university pologies extolling equality and condemning discrimination,
Speaker 1: Professor Bath experienced numerous instances of sexism and racism throughout
Speaker 1: her tenure at UCLA. Drew determined that her scientific endeavors
Speaker 1: must not be obstructed by the glass ceiling in the US.
Speaker 1: She took her research or brought to Europe. Her work
Speaker 1: was accepted on its merits at the Laser Medical Institute
Speaker 1: of Berlin, West Germany, the rothschild I Institute of Paris, France,
Speaker 1: and the Lowellborough Institute of Technology in England, and then
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety three she retired from UCLA Medical Center
Speaker 1: and was appointed to the Honorary Medical Staff. Doctor Bath's
Speaker 1: great passion, however, continued to be fighting blindness till her
Speaker 1: death in May of twenty nineteen, and her personal best
Speaker 1: moment occurred on a humanitarian mission to North Africa, when
Speaker 1: she restored the site of a woman who had been
Speaker 1: blind for thirty years.