Welcome back to Kickass Women! This month we are talking about Dr. Patricia Bath. If you’ve had cataracts, and you’ve had those cataracts treated, you can thank Dr. Bath for saving your eyesight. Patricia Bath, an ophthalmologist, was the first African-American female doctor to patent a medical invention. Her patent is for the Cataract Laserphaco Probe. This terrifyingly named device removes cataracts from people’s eyes. Dr. Bath owns five patents and also developed new strategies of delivering eye care to underserved populations.
Dr. Bath was born in Harlem in 1942. Both of her parents supported her studies and her mother saved money for her education by cleaning houses. Her father was the first Black motorman of the New York Subway system, and her mom bought her her first chemistry set. Of her childhood, Bath stated,
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. (Changing the Face of Medicine)
She graduated from high school in two years and won a college scholarship. She studied chemistry at Hunter College and earned a medical degree from Howard University. As an intern in Harlem Hospital and Columbia University, she noticed a huge disparity in eye problems between Black and White patients. In response, Bath invented the concept of ‘community ophthalmology,’ in which trained volunteers conduct free screenings at preschools and senior centers. This practice allows an underserved population to have issues diagnosed and treated early.
Bath’s most groundbreaking invention is the Laserphaco Probe. This device uses a special laser, which she found in Germany, and two tubes to vaporize and extract cataracts quickly. In some cases, removing the cataract is all that is needed. In others, once the cataract is removed a new lens can be immediately inserted. This invention transformed cataract surgery.
Bath has been a lot of “firsts.” Among other things, she was the first African-American to complete a residency in ophthalmology, the first woman to fill a faculty position in the UCLA Ophthalmology department, the first woman chair of any ophthalmology residency training program, and the first Black female doctor to hold a patent for a medical invention.
Today she is retired but not done being the first – upon her retirement she became the first female member of UCLA Medical Center’s honorary medical staff, and she continues to direct the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness, an organization she co-founded in 1976. Their foundational message: “Eyesight is a basic human right.“
Wow! What an awesome woman! Thanks for the article.
What an inspiration. Thank you for sharing.
One of the pioneers we don’t often hear about. Thank you, Carrie.
Thank you Dr Bath. I had cataract surgery last winter and it is indeed a miraculous procedure.
Thank you for sharing Dr. Bath’s story 🙂 She’s definitely an inspiration.
Great woman! Thank you for sharing her story!
Dr. Bath is an incredible woman and an inspiration!
And I’m such a fan of this feature. I hope that there are more “Kickass Women” posts throughout Black History Month and Women’s History Month. There are so many unsung sheroes.
Amazing! And she was born in 1942. The past isn’t very distant, is it?
Oh, my pitiful brain. I kept reading ‘underserved’ as ‘undeserved’. Maybe I need Dr. Bath to check my eyes.
Thank you Dr. Bath! I was born with cataracts. I doubt this device was used on me because of my age, but her work is amazing.
This is such a great feature. I’d read about Dr. Bath before but not in such detail. Thanks!
What a great heroine, and I never had heard of her!
Wow! What an amazing person! I never knew that such an important thing was invented by a woman! Just… wow!
Now let us see the different types of cataract treatment. Phacoemulsification Cataract surgery Surgeries are done to prevent the developing cataract and improve the vision. The techniques used for a cataract treatment depends on the following factors, the health of the eye is considered as a main factor, the other factors are the equipments used during the surgery and the expertise of the surgeon. The most common type of cataract treatment is called as phacoemulsification cataract surgery with foldable intraocular lens implantation. Another new technology used to treat cataract will be quite interesting, it is a laser assisted cataract surgery that gives the higher level of precision for a particular step in a cataract surgery. In the phacoemulsification cataract surgery a small incision is done and at the end of surgery stitches are not needed. The instruments used are hand held instruments that are used to gain access to the cataract. The cataract is broken up with the ultrasonic energy and the fragments are gently detached from the eye. Laser cataract treatment A special applicator is used during the surgery to insert the flexible IOL that unfolds inside the eye.