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  • Bath, Patricia E.

    A middle aged Black woman sits in a blue chair with her hands clasped in her lap. She has straight, shoulder length black hair, and she is wearing black blazer with white lapels, white pearl earrings, and red lipstick. She is also wearing a medal with a red, green, and black ribbon around her neck. An American flag on a pole sits behind the chair.Patricia E. Bath, MD (1942-2019) was a specialist in cornea and cataract surgery. She earned her medical degree from Howard University College of Medicine in 1968. She then established a practice that combined aspects of public health, community medicine, and clinical ophthalmology to offer primary and speciality care underserved populations. In the 1970s, Dr. Bath moved from New York to Los Angeles, during which time she co-founded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness. In 1983, she became the first woman chair of an ophthalmology residency program in the United States at UCLA. Near the end of her career, Dr. Bath was a major champion of telemedicine and was inducted to the International Women in Medicine Hall of Fame.