Doctor
Patricia Bath, an ophthalmologist from New York, was living in Los Angeles when
she received her first patent, becoming the first African American female
doctor to patent a medical invention. Patricia Bath's patent (#4,744,360) was for a
method for removing cataract lenses that transformed eye surgery by using a laser
device making the procedure more accurate.
Patricia Bath's passionate dedication to the
treatment and prevention of blindness led her to develop the Cataract
Laserphaco Probe. The probe patented in 1988, was designed to use the power of
a laser to quickly and painlessly vaporize cataracts from patients' eyes,
replacing the more common method of using a grinding, drill-like device to
remove the afflictions. With another
Bath was able to restore sight to people who
had been blind for over 30 years. Patricia Bath also holds patents for her
invention in Japan, Canada, and Europe.
Patricia Bath graduated from the Howard
University School of Medicine in 1968 and completed specialty training in
ophthalmology and corneal transplant at both New York University and Columbia
University. In 1975, Bath became the first African-American woman surgeon at
the UCLA Medical Center and the first woman to be on the faculty of the UCLA
Jules Stein Eye Institute. She is the founder and first president of the
American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness. Patricia Bath was elected
to Hunter College Hall of Fame in 1988 and elected as Howard University Pioneer
in Academic Medicine in 1993.
Sexism, racism, and relative
poverty were the obstacles which I faced as a young girl growing up in Harlem.
There were no women physicians I knew of and surgery was a male-dominated
profession; no high schools existed in Harlem, a predominantly black community;
additionally, blacks were excluded from numerous medical schools and medical
societies; and, my family did not possess the funds to send me to medical
school.
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