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Hidden Figures: Patricia Bath #BlackHERstoryMonth 11/28

1,594 views · Published 11 February 2018 · 6:40 · Indexed 24 October 2026

Channel: Sensei Aishitemasu · 2018 · Entertainment

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Patricia Era Bath is an American ophthalmologist, inventor, and academic. She has broken ground for women and African Americans in a number of areas. Prior to Bath, no woman had served on the staff of the Jules Stein Eye Institute, headed a post-graduate training program in ophthalmology, or been elected to the honorary staff of the UCLA Medical Center (an honor bestowed on her after her retirement). Before Bath, no black person had served as a resident in ophthalmology at New York University and no black woman had ever served on staff as a surgeon at the UCLA Medical Center. Bath is the first African-American woman doctor to receive a patent for a medical purpose. The holder of four patents, she also founded the company of the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness in Washington, D.C.

Bath interned at Harlem Hospital Center, subsequently serving as a fellow at Columbia University. Bath was aware that the practice of eye care was uneven among racial minorities and poor populations, with much higher incidence of blindness among her black and poor patients, and she determined that, as a physician, she would help address this issue. She persuaded her professors from Columbia to operate on blind patients at Harlem Hospital Center, which had not previously offered eye surgery, at no cost. Bath pioneered the worldwide discipline of "community ophthalmology", a volunteer-based outreach to bring necessary eye care to underserved populations. Bath holds four patents in the United States. 

In 1981, Bath conceived of her invention, the Laserphaco Probe. She traveled to Berlin University in Germany to learn more about laser technology, and over the course of the next five years, she developed and tested a model for a laser instrument that could be tested to remove cataracts. Bath received a patent for her invention on May 17, 1988, and became the first African American female doctor to receive a patent for a medical invention. 

The device — which quickly and nearly painlessly dissolves the cataract with a laser, irrigates and cleans the eye and permits the easy insertion of a new lens — is used internationally to treat the disease. Bath has continued to improve the device and has successfully restored vision to people who have been unable to see for decades.

In 1993, Bath retired from the UCLA Medical Center. Bath was inducted into the International Women in Medicine Hall of Fame in 2001.

#PatriciaBath #HiddenFigures

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Links: 

Patricia Bath On Being The First Person To Invent & Demonstrate Laserphaco Cataract Surgery | TIME (YouTube):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcE_QMTBNW4&t=9s

Patricia Bath:
https://www.biography.com/people/patricia-bath-21038525

Dr. Patricia E. Bath:
https://cfmedicine.nlm.nih.gov/physicians/biography_26.html

Patricia Bath - Laserphaco Probe:
https://lemelson.mit.edu/resources/patricia-bath

Famous African American Inventors:
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/bhistory/inventors/bath.htm

''The Narrative Of Surprise Has To Change:' Patricia Bath, Inventor Of Laserphaco Cataract Surgery, On Black Women Making:'
https://www.essence.com/news/patricia-bath-inventor-laserphaco-surgery-time-firsts

Bath, Patricia (1942- ):
http://www.blackpast.org/aah/bath-patricia-1942

Patricia Bath - The HistoryMakers:
http://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/dr-patricia-bath

Patricia Bath (Wikipedia):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patricia_Bath

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