Vision Excellence Awards: Victor Manuel Corona Uribe

Dr. Victor Manuel Corona Uribe is one of the founders of the Instituto Mexicano de Oftalmologia IAP [Mexican Institute of Ophthalmology, IMO].

After graduating as an ophthalmologist from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México in 1969, he arrived in the city of Querétaro over 36 years ago. With the collaboration of a group of fellow ophthalmologists, he started a project 25 years ago to aid people living in the mountainous areas of Queretaro in conditions of extreme poverty. The team performed outreach screening campaigns and referred patients to the capital for medical treatment and surgery on a non-profit basis. To address the population’s huge need for eye care, they decided to found a private assistance institution with three main objectives: Social Assistance, Research and Education.

This is how the Instituto Mexicano de Oftalmologia was born, as a private assistance institution with the primary objectives of diagnosing, treating and preventing ocular diseases in low-income populations. Its secondary objectives are providing training for ophthalmic personnel, including ophthalmology residents, and conducting research in ophthalmology and the visual sciences, all of this as a non-profit institution.

The IMO was legally constituted as a private institution in January 1997 under Mexican federal and state law, and it is currently under the supervision of the private assistance board of Queretaro State, which ensures that the institution complies with its objectives and makes use of donations from Mexico and abroad with integrity and transparency.

In 2006, the IMO became a collaborator with the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico for the postgraduate training of medical residents in ophthalmology. By 2018, the IMO had provided a total of 337,377 patient consultations and 2,992 surgical procedures. It is currently also a training site for vitreoretinal and cataract surgery, in partnership with the same prestigious university.

Explaining the principles behind his actions, Dr. Corona states: “People with low incomes do not deserve second-class medicine; we believe it is our obligation to provide the best care, although without extra frills. It is our philosophy and our pride to do things right.” In keeping with this belief, he has consistently impressed upon IMO personnel the importance of providing kind and warm care to every patient.