Black History is infinity ➰ Vision is one of the most basic human senses. Access to it has never been evenly distributed. Dr. Patricia Bath treated that imbalance not as a footnote—but as a systems failure worth fixing. Dr. Patricia Bath helped redefine how the world approaches blindness—at a time when medicine and public health too often accepted unequal access to care as unavoidable. As an ophthalmologist and researcher, Bath documented that Black patients experienced significantly higher rates of blindness and glaucoma, not because of biology, but because of preventable gaps in access and early treatment. She refused to let the system call those outcomes “normal.” In the 1970s, Bath founded the field of community ophthalmology, reframing eye care as a public health imperative—built on prevention, screening, and access for underserved communities. In 1977, she co-founded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness, anchored in a simple principle: eyesight is a basic human right. This was structural work. Before equity became standard language in health policy. Before prevention was widely treated as a serious investment. Bath paired that systems focus with breakthrough invention. In the 1980s, she developed the Laserphaco Probe, a laser-based technique and device that advanced cataract surgery. In 1988, she received a patent for the invention—becoming the first African American woman physician to receive a medical patent. The result helped restore or improve vision for people around the world, including patients who had lived with blindness for years. Her leadership also changed institutions. She became the first woman ophthalmologist on the faculty of UCLA’s Jules Stein Eye Institute and later the first woman in the United States to chair an ophthalmology residency program (Drew–UCLA) in 1983—expanding who could train, lead, and shape the future of care. Throughout her career, Bath maintained that innovation divorced from access is structurally incomplete and ethically insufficient. From the operating room to global public health, Patricia Bath’s work continues to shape how medicine restores vision—and how systems decide who gets to keep it. 📍 Follow along this month as we continue honoring the builders, the breakthroughs, and what comes next.