PGI doc becomes first in India to win coveted medal

Gupta was born and brought up in Jammu. She completed her MBBS from Jammu Medical College before moving into ophthalmology and later specialising in uveitis. She said her journey was possible because of the “consistently encouraging support” of her family. “My parents, my in-laws, my husband Dr Rajesh Gupta who heads GI surgery, and my daughter who is now a physician in the United States have stood by me at every step,” she said.

She credited her mentor, Prof. Amod Gupta, for steering her into a complex field that few choose because it demands careful clinical judgement and coordination with several medical disciplines. “He opened the field for me,” she said. “Uveitis is difficult because one wrong step can cost a patient their sight, and you need to think across infections, immunity and even hidden cancers.”

One of her most influential contributions has been reshaping global understanding of tuberculosis of the eye. Gupta recalled how early cases of serpiginous choroiditis were being treated worldwide as an autoimmune disease with heavy immunosuppression. “We noticed that our patients were repeatedly testing positive for TB,” she said. “When we added anti-TB treatment, more than 80 per cent improved. That changed everything.”

Her group went on to identify and name the distinct condition now known internationally as TB serpiginous-like choroiditis. She later convened the Collaborative Ocular TB Study, a network of 25 global centres that produced clinical evidence showing how TB affects the eye and when patients should receive treatment.

Another major contribution has been her leadership of the Multimodal Imaging in Uveitis Project, a worldwide collaboration that promotes rational and low-cost use of imaging. “Doctors everywhere are ordering more and more imaging without logic. It increases the patient’s burden and makes people believe you cannot treat without expensive machines,” she said. The group published a series of guidelines in the American Journal of Ophthalmology that set minimal imaging requirements and emphasised that imaging should help, not replace, clinical judgement.

Gupta pointed out that much of her global work, including the ocular TB consortium and a clinical decision app used by doctors worldwide, had no external funding. “Most of our big studies had zero funding,” she said. “Colleagues from Singapore, Stanford and PGIMER worked with students and volunteers. We kept going because our patients and our questions kept us going.”

For young researchers, she offered one piece of advice. “Be honest with your questions and stay with them,” she said. “Make your work visible. Travel, speak, present. You do not have to follow what is already being done in the West. Come up with something nobody has thought of. If you believe in an idea, persist.”

The author is an intern with The Indian Express