Eye Health Hero: Dr. Ingrid Yazmín Pita Ortiz

It’s a pleasure for me to be writing to the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) in behalf of the hospital I represent, and to be nominating Dr. Ingrid Pita for this year award. I’ve known Dr. Pita since 2014, the year she started the ophthalmology residency in our hospital. She has contributed to the diagnosis of ocular pathologies like diabetic retinopathy and cataract since she finished medical school. After experiencing the gratitude and the happiness of the people that got a proper ophthalmologist attention, she decided to study ophthalmology at Mexico City, leaving her family and friends back home. During her ophthalmology fellowship, she participated in several charity campaigns organized by the hospital, going to a small town in a city where the ophthalmology care is almost absent and helped explore and diagnose children and adults of all the surrounding towns.

While being an ophthalmology fellow, she helped her friends during exams periods, always making a time to help a friend and others. She served as Chief Resident during her last fellowship year, while researching and presenting these researches in national congresses. At the end of the last fellowship year she graduated with honors being the 1 st place of the class.

She started the retina and vitreous subspecialty fellowship, during these years, she continued showing interest in teaching other fellows and help them achieve their goals. Her notes continued to be excellent, achieving the first place at the examination of the Mexican Board of Ophthalmology. She also participated in teaching other medical specialties about the importance of ocular diagnoses, such as retinopathy of prematurity, by giving some lectures to pediatricians and neonatologists. While being a retina fellow, she attained the grade of “Fellow of the International Council of Ophthalmology”.

“What I love about my role is felling that everything I do during my “job” helps others achieve a better live, it can be while helping patients avoid losing their vision or while helping fellows understand the different pathologies or surgeries. The main thing in this life is to be happy and being happy while doing ophthalmology reflects in every act and the attitude towards the rest of the world.”

-Dr. Ingrid Pita

She continued as a part of the staff of the Retina Department in the “Fundación Hospital Nuestra Señora de la Luz, IAP.”, but she decided to apply to an international fellowship of ocular oncology. She assisted to the “Hospital Universitario La Paz”, in Madrid, Spain. She continued assisting the virtual lectures as the retina fellows continued their education online in Mexico because pandemic restrictions, even though the difference of time zone sometimes made her wake up during midnight.

Back home, she is finishing her Master´s Degree in Direction of Health Care Organizations, her goal is to become a part of the National Research System. So far, she had published five research articles, but is part of several others pending to be published. She wants to standardize diagnosis and treatment protocol for ocular oncology pathologies and wants to get our oncologic ophthalmic care to the highest standards.